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^JP3SM«IP 






Mr. EVERETT, OF MASSACHUSETTS, 



ON THE BILL 



FOm REMOVIMa THE IMSXiil^S 



FltO.M 



THE EAST TO THE WEST >SIDE 



f^F THE 



MISSISSIPPI 



BELIVEREI) IN THE HOUSE OF UEPRESENTATlVES, 

OS THE IOTH IMAY, 18S0. 



WASHiNcrrnrv 



•^lUMTKi) KT GALKS & SIvATON 



r^H 



u\" 

\ 1830* 



i)) 



£53 



SPEECH. 



Mr. Speaker . 

I SENSIBLY feel the disadvatitages under v,^luch I rise to address the House. Submissive 
as I would ever be to the will of a majority of this body, I must express the opinion, that 
this discussion has been urged forward somewhat too severely. The bill was first taken up 
in Committee of the Whole on Thursday last. That and the following days were occu- 
pied by the worthy Chairman of the Committee of Indian Affairs, with the exposition in 
which he opened the case. The hours appropriated to debate, on Saturday, were taken up 
by the gentleman from New York, on the other side of the question. Monday was con- 
sumed by two gentlemen from Georgia [Messrs. Lumpkin and Foster] in supporting the 
bill 4 and the gentlenaan from Connecticut [Mr. Elxsworth] in opposition to it. Yesterday 
was occupied by several gentlemen opposed to the bill : but the able argument of the gen» 
tleman from Delaware [Mr. Johns] was made when it might as well not have been made ; at 
that hour of the day, or rather of the night, when it is impossible to bring the attention, 
worn dov/n by a protracted session, to the consideration even of a subject as important as 
•this. After a session of more than twelve hours, last night, the Committee of the Whole re- 
fused to rise, at the request of more than one gentleman, who expressed a wish to address 
them against the policy now proposed 5 and, when the committee did rise, the bill was re- 
ported to the House. Thus, sir, of five days given to the discussion of a bill of this vast 
importance, a little more than two is all that has been allowed to those, who think that it 
ought not to pass. The bill is now out of committee, and it is not in order to reply to any 
thing that has been urged in its favor. You have given us less time to discuss this all-impor- 
tant measure, than you devoted to the subject of a draftsman for the House. I cannot think 
an urgency and a precipitation like this, to be justifiable on such a subject. 

Had the discussion been permitted to go on a httle longer in Committee of tiie Whole, as 
we were promised it should, by the worthy Chairman, (who, as far as it depended on him, 
would, I am quite sure, gladly have redeemed his pledge,) 1 intended to go at length into 
the argument, set forth with such ability, in his exposition of the poUcy of the bill. It 
is not in order now to execute this purpose ; and if I were otherwise in a condition to do it, 
I could not attempt it. For the purpose of pushing forward this measure, the sessions of 
the House have been protracted to a point beyond the power of the human constitution to 
bear ; and the little strength -which I brought with me five hours ago to the House, has failed 
in the long waitir.g for an opportunity to address the House. I shall not, therefore, attempt 
to engage in the great constitutional argument involved in this bill, nor to travel through the 
wide region of historical research, necessary to illustrate it in all its bearings. I shall con- 
fine myself to a limited and practical view of the subject^ and a single branch of the ar- 
gument. 

Rut, before I proceed, I will say a word or two on the imputation of mercenary motives 
against some of those individuals, who, out of this House, have been conspicuous for their 
endeavors to enligliten the pubhc mind (m this subject. That imputation has obtained no 
§mall currency elsewhere, and has, to say the least, lost no strength by the terms in which 
it has been repeated on this floor. It has been more than insinuated, that their pretended 
zea\ in the cause of the Indians, on the score of humanity and religion, is prompted by the 
basest motives of selfishness, and that the annuities of the Cherokee nation have been looked 
to, and have been disbursed, as the reward of these pretended efforts of philanthropy. 

1 will not undertake a sweeping vindication of men, whom I do not know, against a vague 
charge of this kind, made without the least specification of facts. If there are some, who, 
from unworthy motives^ have affected an interest in this good cause, ft is no more than hap- 



pens in every other good c?.use. 1 know none such ^ 1 defend none such, if they are known 
to others. But, with respect to the individual most meritoriously conspicuous for his efforts 
in this cause, the author of the essays of William Penn, (so often alluded to on this floor, 
but which stood in no need of such mention, to give them reputation in the country,) I will 
say of that gentleman, that he is quite above the reach of that imputation, come it whence it 
may. He needs no defence against it. It cannot attach itself to him, not even as possible 
to be conceived of. Sir, 1 will go further : With some means of information, though not of 
my own seeking, 1 will say, that not a shadow of proof has been adduced, that one dollar 
has been expended by the Indians to procure or to compensate any exertion that has been 
made on their behalf. I have no belief that a dollar has been so expended by them. 

I say this, because I think it due to truth and fact, and not because there would have been 
any impropriety in such an expenditure, applied in a proper way ; and as it is constantly 
done by men, who have large interests at stake. So far from its being improper, had I, 
when these troubles began, three or four years ago, been called upon by the Cherokees, for 
my humble advice, I would in lieu of every thing else, have advised them, to retain the ser- 
vices, at any cost, of the ablest counsel in the United States. How can it be expected, 
that this friendless, unrepresented people, with no voice in our councils, no access to our tri- 
bunals, no place in our community, should, without aid, plead their own cause, effectively^, 
against the States that surround them, and the General Government itself? I am only aston- 
ished, that they have been able to sustain their cause, as they have : and had their whole an- 
nuity been applied, for tlie purpose I have named, it would have been the best use that they 
could have made of it. Had this been done, their fate would not now be trembling on our 
decision, coerced under the previous question, in a midnight session. 

As I have already stated, I shall not go into the constitutional argument. It has been 
most ably treated ; and an array of authorities set forth, which has not been, and in my 
judgment cannot be shaken. I will, in passing, but add one to their number, which has not 
yet been cited ; and which shows that the principle on which this Government has hitherto 
acted towards the Indians, and which it is now proposed to repudiate, has been incorpoTated 
as far as it was in our power to incorporate it, into the Law of Nations. We were hap- 
py enough to lay down those principles, as the basis of our policy toward the Indians, when 
that policy was under discussion at Ghent, in 1814. The British negotiators then made 
this allegation, against our envoys : 

** The American Government has now, for the first time, in effect, declared, that all In- 
*' dian Nations living within its line of demarcation, are its subjects, living there upon suf- 
*• ferance, on lands, which it also claims the exclusive right of acquiring ; thereby menacing. 
** the final extinction of these nations." 

Such was the charge of the British negotiators, in their letter of 4th September 1814. 
To this charge the American Envoys made the following reply : 

" If the United States had now asserted, that the Indians within their boundaries, who 
" have acknowledged the United States as their only protectors, were their subjects, living 
*' only at their sufferance on their lands, far from being the first in making that assertion, 
** they would only have followed the example of the principles, uniformly and invariably as- 
" serted in substance, and frequently avowed in express terms, by the British Government 
"itself. * * * 

** From the rigor of this system, however, as practised by Great Britain, and all the other 
*' European Powers in America, the humane and liberal policy of the United States has vo- 
" luntarily relaxed. A celebrated writer on the Law of Nations, to whose authority British 
*' jurists have taken particular satisfaction in appealing, after stating in the most explicit man- 
'* ner, the legitimacy of colonial settlements in America, to the exclusion of all rights of un- 
*' civilized Indian tribes, has taken occasion to praise the first settlers of New England, and 
** the founder of Pennsylvania, in having purchased of the Indians the lands they resolved to 
** cultivate, notwithstanding their being furnished with a Charter from their sovereign. It 
" is this example, which the United States, since they became by their independence, the 
** sovereigns of the territory, have adopted and organized into a political system. Under 
*' that system, the Indians residing within the United States, are so far ijidependent, that 
*• they live under their own customs, and not under the laws of the United States : that 
** their rights upon the lands where they inhabit or hunt are secured to them, by boundaries, 
" defined in amicable treaties, between the United States and themselves ; and that, when- 
*« ever those boundaries are vai-ied, it is also by amicable and voluntary treaties, by which 
*' they receive from the United States ample compensation for every right they have, to the 
' " lands ceded by them." 

Such in 1814, was the opinion entertained of otir Indian relations, by John Quincy Adams,, 
James Bayard, Henry Clay, and Albert Gallatin. 

But I pass to a narrower view of the subject. I shall treat this matter plainly and practi- 
cally. I shall go into no abstractions ; no refinements. I go to the substance. What is the 
question ? It is, whether by passing this bill, we will furniah the means, to carry into effect 
the policy ♦• prescribed" by the Executive, for the removal of the Indians. Yes, sir, prescri- 
bed; I use the word, but it is not my own. At an early stage of the session, the course 
for which this bill furnishes an appropriation, was, by a member of this House, friendly to 



tlie bill, said to be prescribed by the President. This language, I believe Is novel on this 
^oor. I never heard it, nor heard of it before, in any connection with this House. ,1 was not 
aware, that there existed an authority on earth, that could prescribe any thing to this.House. 
It struck ray ear ; but it seemed to excite no surprise, it passed as matter of course ; no one 
protested against it, as an infringement of the privileges of this House. I did indeed, then 
almost give up the cause in despair. What hope could be left, when, organized as parties are, 
in and out of this House, — a measure like this could be said to be "prescribed" by the Ex- 
ecutive. 

What then is this prescribed policy ? It is to co-operate with the States, and particularly 
with Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, in removing the Indians. I name these States, fos 
a reason, that I shall presently state. I omit North Carolina and Tennessee, because theV^"^ 
provisions of the bill do not apply to them. In the State of Tennessee there is a large and 
valuable tract of land, occupied by the Cherokee Indians. Those lands lie north and east 
of the Congressional reservation line of the State of Tennessee. The United States have 
long since ceded their interest in them, to the State of Tennessee ; and whenever the Indi- 
an title to them is extinguished, it will of course be, as in similar cases it always has been, 
at the expense of that State. For this reason, and to prevent the provisions of the Bill, as 
originally drafted, from applying to the States of North Carolina and Tennessee, an amend- 
ment was moved, by a Senator, and adopted as a feature of the bill.* ThoseStates have 
no interest in it. 

The bill then provides the means for co-operating with the States of Georgia, Alabama, 
and Mississippi, in removing the Indians within their limits. It is not a substantive measure^ I/" 
ending where it begins, in the legislation of Congress and the action of the General Govern- 
ment. It is a joint policy. We are to do part, and the States to do part. We are to fur- 
nish the money,' and a portion of the machinery. The great principle of motion proceeds 
from the States. They are to move the Indians. We are to pay the expense of the operation . 

What is the warrant for such a statement ? I admit, as amply as gentlemen please, that it 
has long been the policy of the General Government to remove the Indians from their 
lands, if their consent could be obtained, in treaties negotiated with them, as thus far inde- 
pendent societies. It is a policy we have long pursued, and with a success, which, one 
would think, would satisfy the warmest friend of Indian cessions. We have acquired east 
and west of the Mississippi, by treaties, about two hundred and thirty millions of acres of 
land. I do not wish to be understood, as condemning this policy. The consideration paid 
to the Indians lias, I believe, generally been to them a fair equivalent, for the value, which 
the lands ceded possessed in their hands. But with the four Southern tribes, the policy 
had been pushed so far, and so rapidly, that they had come to the resolution, that they would 
cede no more. We tried it with each tribe ; through the agency of the most respectable 
and skilful Commissioners ; by the offer of the largest tribes ; by the force of the most un- 
wearied importunity. The answers came, at last, in terms from one of them, and in sub- 
stance from all; "that they would not cede another foot of land." Such no doubt wa- 
their determination, but they could not have adhered to it ^ and if the States had been wills 
ing to exercise a little patience, there is no doubt, that they would, in the course of no long* 
period of years, have obtained all they wish. This they did not think it expedient to do- 
The United States, having abandoned for the present the hope of obtaining by treaty any 
more lands from the Southern tribes, and it having been determined, in the words of Presi- 
dent Monroe, that force was not to be thought of; the matter must, under the Constitution 
and lavvTs of the States, for the present have rested, where it stood three years ago. There 
is no way known to the Constitution and laws of the United States, by which Indian land 
can be acquired, but conquest in open war, and amicable agreement by treaty. 

Here then the States step in, with the novel, and, as I regard it and deem it fully proved in 
this debate, the unconstitutional and illegal extension of their ordinary civil aind criminal 
jurisdiction over these tribes, accompanied with enactments, peculiarly operative and op- 
pressively binding on them. The Indians, (with whom we have negotiated treaties,) pro- 
missing them protection, come and ask to be protected against this unheard of assumption. 
They ask us to ward off the blow aimed at them ; to arrest the strong arm, stretched out 
against them. The President tells them he cannot do it. The executive government 
reiterates that we cannot, shall not, will not give them this protection ; and the President 
advises them to remove westward. 

Now, what are these laws ? I will not now specify their provisions. It is sufficient to say, 
in the general, that they are such, by all admission, that the Indians cannot live under them. 
The Indians say ihey cannot live under them. The Executive tells them, they cannot live 
under them. The States evidently do not expect that they can or will live under them. The 
laws, were beyond all question, not passed with any such design : they are not so regarded 
by the Indians, nor by ourselves. What says the Chief Magistrate ? •• A portion of the 
" Southern tribes having mingled much with the whites, and made some progress in the arts 
" of civilized life, have lately attempted to erect an independent GovernmeKt, within the 

' The amendment referred to is in these words : " Within the bounds of any one or more of the States or 
territories, where the land claimed and occupied by Indians, is owned by the United States, or the United States 
are bound to the State, within which it lies, to extinguish the Indian title thereto." 



" limits of Georgia and Alabama. These States, claimins^ to be the only sovereigns within' 
" their limits extended their laws over the Indians, which induced the latter to call on the 
" United States fm' protection.'' 

The Presidewt, after an argument on the extent of the right of the Indians to erect an 
independent Government, an argument sufficiently examined already in this debate, goes 
on to say : — 

** Actuated by this view of the subject, I informed the Indians inhabiting parts of Ala- 
'• bama and Georgia, that their attempt to establish an independent government would not be 
** countenanced by the Executive of the United States : and advised them to emigrate beyond 
" the Mississippi^ or submit to the laws of the States." 

It is plain, that it was the first part only of this advice, viz : the removal, that the Presi- 
dent thought it for the interest of the Indians to follow. This we see in the following 
language of the Secretary of War, in his instructions to Generals Carroll and Coffee, bearing 
date 30th May, 1830 :~- 

*' A crisis in our Indian Affairs has arrived. Strong indications are seen of this in the cir- 
** cumstance of the Legislatures of Georgia and Alabama, extending their laws over the 
" Indians within their respective limits. These acts, it is reasonable to presume, will be fol- 
" lowed by other States, interested in those portions of their soil, now in the occupancy of 
" the Indians. In the right to exercise such jurisdiction, the Executive of the United States 
*• fully concurs 5 and this has been officially announced to the Cherokee Indians. The Pre- - 
** sident is of opinion, that the only mode left for the Indians to escape the effects of such enact- 
" merits, and consequences yet more destructive, which are consequent on their contiguity with 
" the whites, is to emigrate." 

** The President views the Indians as the children of the Government. He sees what is 
•* best for them ; and that a perseverance in their refusal to Jiy the dangers that surround 
*' them, must result in their misery and final destruction. He would, if appeals to their rea- 
** son fail, induce them by rewards, to avoid the threatened calamity. 

'* Your first business, should you consent to engage in this work of mercy to the Indians, 
" would be to ascertain upon whom, as pivots, the will of the Cherokees and Creeks turns. 
** Go to them, not as a negotiator, but friend. Open to each a view of his danger, and the 
*' danger that threatens his people. This may be made up of references to their present 
" state, as to narabers, when compared with the past ; the causes that have produced this 
" thinning of their numbers ; and here you might enlarge on their comparative degradation 
*' as a people, and the total impossibility of their ever attaining to higher privileges while 
*' they retain their present relations to a people who seek to get rid of them ; to the inefficiency 
** of their ow;n laws for their advancement ; and finally to the fact that these will be super- 
" seded and trodden under foot, by the exercise over them, of the laws of the States. 
** And here you might amply illustrate the really difficult relation which the Cherokees, 
*• particularly, bear to this question, by the passing over them of the various laws of four 
"States/" 

This is the language held by the President and Secretary of War, as to the character and 
effect of these State laws. That the Indians regard them in the same light as connected 
with their own removal, is seen, if it need confirmation in Governor Carroll's despatch to 
the Secretary of War. In a letter dated, Winchester, (Tenn.) 2d September, 1829, that 
most respectable and distinguished citizen uses the following language : — 

" The truth is, they (the Indians) rely, with great confidence, on a favorable report on 
«* the petition they have before Congress. If that is rejected, and the laws of the States 
** are enforced, you will have no difficulty in procuring an exchange of lands with them.'* 

Sir, 1 have seen an authentic account of the proceedings of the Choctaw Council, lately 
convened to consider this subject of emigration. It was a scene, as we are told by the Mis- 
sissippi papers, that could not be witnessed without tears. After the new chief had been 
instfilled in office, " he introduced to the council the subject of a removal in this way : he 
*• first stated some of the laws of Mississippi, and then inquired of them, vt^hether they 
*• would remain where they were, and submit to these laws, or remove over the Mississippi. 
*• He also stated the substance of the last talk to them of the President of the United 
*' States. The captains and others rose and spoke : the general sentinif nt was — we are dis- 
" tressed — we cannot endure the laws of Mississippi — we do not think our great father 
** loves us — we must go, as he will not help us while we remain here." 

If another authority is needed, I will add that of General Coffee, in a letter to the Secre- 
tary of War, dated Creek Agency, October 14, 1829 : *' They express a confident hope that 
" Congress will interpose its power, and prevent the States from extending their laws over 
** them. Should they be disappointed in this, I hazard little in saying, that the Government 
** will have little difficulty in removing them west of the Mississippi." 
" If the States enforce the laws, they will be sjlad enough to go ! 

The States declare they will enforce them. The Indians cry to us for protection. We 
tell them we will not protect them ; and the consequence is, they go. 

This bill is to appropriate the funds for their removal. 

Such is the bill of which we are told that there is nothing in it objectionable, that it con- 
templates rtothing compulsory. This is the removal which is said to be voluntary. These 



tire the laws which are said to have no connection with the subject ; into which we have 
been told it is irrelevant and idle to inquire ! 

Nothing to do with the subject ! Take the bill as it is ! Not to presume that Georgia, 
Alabama, or Mississippi, has passed, or can pass, any law that varies this question ! Why', it 
is the very point on which the rightfulness of the measure turns. Here is wrapped up the 
great objection to the removal, that it is compulsory ,- an objection which we published ten 
thousand copies of the report of the Indian Committee to obviate ; and which is not touch- 
ed, I believe, in that report. The State laws nothing to do with our legislation ! Why they 
are the very means on which our agents rely to move the Indians. It is the argument first 
and last on their tongues. The President uses it ; the Secretary uses it ; the Commissioners 
use it. — The State&have passed the laws. Yovi cannot live under them. We cannot, and 
shall not protect you from them. We advise you, as you would save your dear lives from 
destruction, to go. 

I appeal to the House if I overstate this point. 

The question then is, shall we nerve the arm of this State legislation, whicli is put forth 
fbVcibly to remove tlie Indians. Tliat is. the question for us to decide. It is the only 
question, and we are the only authority. This Congress is the only tribunal clothed witli 
power to decide it. It depends on our vote 5 and it depends on nothing else. It is the 
business of t!ie President to enforce our laws, not the laws of the States. He is solemnly 
sworn, to the best of his ability, to " preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the 
United States," to take care that the laws we pass are faithfully executed, and " this Con- 
«* stitution and the laws of the United States made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties, 
*♦ made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the su- 
** preme law of the land, and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any thing 
*' in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.'' 

The President then has no power in this matter but to execute the laws and treaties of 
the United States. The great question is to be settled by us. We are to protect the In- V/ 
dians from this legislation, or abandon them to it. No other power on earth can do it. 

Sir, it is force. The President himself authorises us to call it force. In his message, at 
the opening of the session, he says : " By persuasion and force they have been made to re- 
tire from river to river, and from mountain to mountain." When were, any means employed 
to detrude the Indians better entitled than these laws to the name of force ? He does not 
probably refer to open wars against hostile nations, in which he has been himself, so benefi- 
cially for his country, and so much to iiis own fame, distinguished. No. I take the message 
to intend legislative force, moral force, duress, the untiring power of civihzed man pushing 
his uncivihzed neighbor farther and farther into the woods. This I take to be the force to 
which the President alludes. And if this kind of action, unavoidably incident to the conti- 
guity of the two races, be justly called ybrce, how much more so the legislation of which the 
Indians complain, avowedly instituted to effect their removal, and confessedly insupporta- 
ble in its nature ! 

Sir, it is force. It is because it is force that our interference for protection is invoked. I 
know it comes in the form of law ; but is not the law force ? Suppose the Indians disobey 
the laws, (and they are no more bound to obey them than the Mexicans are,) is 
there no force then ? Are not the sheriff, the constable, the gaoler, the executioner, ministers 
offeree? No force ? A law passed over my head by a power which 1 cannot resist, a law in- 
tended to make me fly the country, because I cannot live under it, and I not forced to go ^ 
There was no force then applied against the Hugonots by the revocation of the edict of 
Nantz. They had only to adopt the Catholic faith, and dragoons were sent an\ong them to 
assist in their conversion. There was no force employed by the British Government toward 
the Ptiritans. They needed only to conform to the established Church, and they would then 
be safe from tlie visitations of the Star Chamber. But it was well known that these victims of 
power could not and would not submit ; and history has recorded that they were driven by 
force from their native land. I do not say that tlie State laws are as oppressive as these 
odious measures of a dark and bigoted age in Euroj's. I do but take their admitted charac- 
ter, which is such that the Indians cannot live under them. The peculiar kind and degree 
of the disability imposed by the laws are immaterial, if, in the general result, they are, as 
they are admitted to be, intolerable. 

1 say again, then, that legal force is the most efficient and formidable that can be applied. 
It is systematic, it is calculated and measured to effect its end. Tlie sovereign power sits 
calmly in its Council Chamber, and sliapes its measures modt exFec'ively to the desired object. 
Actual physical force is either tumultuary, as that of the mob, and of consequence transitory ; 
or it is that of the military arm of the Government which, from the nature of things, is put 
forth only at a crisis, and to meet the exigency of an occasion. But force embodied in the 
form of law, a compulsory legislation, a code beneath which I cannot live, a duress which 
surrounds me, and pursues me, whithersoever I travel, wiierever I abide ; ever acting by 
day, ever watchful by night, coextensive with the land in which I live ; Sir, I submit to this 
Congress of reasonable men, that it is the most effectual and the most appalling' form in which 
force can be applied ; the most disheartening. All other force awakens a manly courage of 
resistance. But this deadly influence of an unfriendly legislation, this cold averted eye of 






a Government, whleh has checks and restrauits fbr you, but no encouragements nor hopes ^ 
in short, this institution of things which is intended to depress, harass, and prostrate you,, 
beneath which you feel you cannot hve, and which drives you as an outcast from your native 
land : this is the force which every freeman would most deprecate. 

Sir, I acknowledge my mind has been strangely confounded by the propositions laid down 
by the Executive Government and those who support its policy toward the Indians. I am 
ready to think that they or I have lost sight of the ordinary significancy of terms. I had 
supposed the gejieral idea of the nature of law was settled in the common agreement of man- 
kind. Sages, when they attempted to describe it in its highest conception, had told us, that its 
seat w^as the bosom of God, and its voice the harmony of the worlds. I had been taught to 
reverence the law as a sort of earthly Providence ; as the great popular sovereign ; the un- 
throned and sceptreless prince ; the mild dictator, whose province it was to see that not a 
single subject of its sway received harm. With these conceptions, how can I understand it 
when I hear that the Indians claim to be protected against the laws of the States? Protected 
against the laws ! I thouglit it was the object of the law to protect every good man from all 
liarm whatever, and even to visit on the bad man only the specific penalty of his proven of- 
fence. But protection against the law : protection against the protector ? Sir, I cannot un- 
derstand it : it is incongruous. It confounds my faculties. There must be fatal mischief 
concealed in so strange a contradiction of language. 

It has been asked, in a highly respectable quarter, ** what has a Cherokee to fear from the 
laws of Georgia ?" Is it necessary for me to answer that question, and tell what a man has ta 
fear from laws under which it is admitted he cannot live } But I will answer the question spe- 
cifically ; and, in the answer I give, I implore gentlemen whose duty it is to vindicate the 
honor of Georgia, not to understand me as casting any imputation upon it. I will say nothing 
which the most tender sensibility can construe into an aspersion of her honor, because I 
mean nothing which can be so construed. I will state, then, what a Cherokee has to fear 
from the laws of Georgia. 

By the fifteenth section of her law, of 19th December, 1829, it is provided "that no In- 
" dian, or descendant of any Indian, residing within the Creek or Cherokee nation of Indians, 
*' shall be deemed a competent witness in auy Court in this State to which a white person 
•* may be a party, except such white person resides within the said nation." 

It would be going out of my way to dwell on the point, yet I cannot but remark, in pass- 
ing, that this law makes a singular discrimination, both as respects the credibihty of Indian 
testimony and the rights of Georgian citizens, whom it Is the presumable intention of the law 
to protect against evidence, which cannot in its alleged nature be sufficiently responsible. 
Georgia has attached the different portions of the Cherokee country to her several adjacent, 
counties, and made them parts of those counties. It is well known also, that, in proportion as 
the Cherokees have been drawn off by emigration, citizens of Georgia have advanced into the 
country, and numbers of them are now resident there. Against these latter, the Cherokee is a 
competent witness in a Court of law. Here, then, we have the singular incongruity that Indian, 
testimony is good against a Georgian citizen in one part of a county, and not good against 
. him in the other. Thus the citizen of the county of Gwinnet, who lives at Lawrenceville, is 
safe against Indian testimony. But the citizen of the same county, west of the Chattahoochie, 
may be tried and convicted on that testimony in the same Court. So, too, the Cherokee is 
an incompetent witness ; he cannot give testimony on a sufficiently responsible sanction^ 
against any citizen of Lawrenceville ; but the Court will receive his testimony as adequate 
in any cause in which a citizen of Georgia from the other side of the river is a party. It is an 
obvious consequence of this state of things, that the same Indian, in the same Court, and on 
the same day, is and is not a competent witnesss. This hour he is, according to the argument, 
an uncivilized pagan, possessing no religion nor superstition by which the Court can bind liis 
conscience; the next hour he may swear away the hfe of any Georgian resident in the Indian 
country. Does not this show that the law has no foundation in any political or social necessity ^ 

But I return to tlie question, what has the Cherokee to fear from this law of Georgia ? He 
has this to fear. The citizens of Georgia, I admit, freely and cheerfully, to be as orderly, vir- 
tuous, and humane a people as the citizens of any other State of the Union. I presume, how- 
ever, that in Georgia, as in every other State, there are individuals, in considerable numbers, 
■who regard the law only for its terrors ; whom justice and honesty do not control, except as 
they are enforced by the law. Such men exist in all the States'; they keep our Courts of 
criminal jurisdiction constantly employed. In my own State, and in perhaps the most order- 
ly community in it, the country has lately seen, with horror and astonishment, that there are 
men capable of atrocities, which would shock the brigands of Calabria. Well, then, sir, sup- 
pose the State of Georgia to contain some such ; they have but to cross the Cherokee fine ; 
they have but to choose the time and the place, where the eye of no whit^ man can rest upon 
them, and they may burn the dwelling, waste the farm, phmder the property, assault the 
person, murder the children of the Cherokee subject of Georgia, and though hundreds of the 
tribe may be looking on, tliere is not one of them that can be permitted to bear witness 
against the spoiler. When 1 am asked, then, what the Cherokee has to fear from the law of 
Georgia, I answer, that, by that law, he is left at the mercy of the firebrand and dagger of 
every unprincipled wretch in the community. Am I told the laws of Georgia are kindly ad- 



\ 



ministered towards this people ; that they have often obtained justice in the Courts of Geor- 
gia ? I do not doubt it ; I know it, on the best authority. But the law of which I speak, is a 
new law 5 it has not yet gone into operation ; and, when it has gone into operation, let it be 
adn^inistered as mildly as you please, it cannot admit an Indian's testimony against a white 
man not resident in the nation. 

What h%s a Choctaw to fear from the laws of Mississippi ? He has this to fear. The fifth 
section of one of those laws provides, ** that any person or persons who shall assume on him 
** orjthemsclves, and exercise, in any manner whatever, the office of Chief, Mingo, Headman, or 
*' other post of power established by the tribal statutes, ordinances, or customs of the said In- 
*' dians, and not particularly recognized by the laws of this State, shall, on conviction, upon 
** indictment or presentment before a Court of competent jurisdiction, be fined in any sum 
*' not exceeding one thousand dollars, and be imprisoned any time, not exceeding twelve 
** months, at the discretion of the Court, before whonl conviction may be had.*' 

Now, sir, there is a treaty between the United States and the Choctaw nation, negotiated 
at Doak's Stand, not ten years ago, and signed on behalf of the United States, by the pre- 
sent Chief Magistrate, and the respectable member \_Mi\ Hinds] from Mississippi. The 
thirteenth article of that treaty is as follows : '• To enable the Mingoes, Chiefs, and Headmen 
'* of the Choctaw nation to raise and organize a corps of light-house, consisting of ten in 
*• each district, so that good order may be maintained, and that all men, both white and 
** red, may be compelled to pay their just debts ; it is stipulated and agreed, that the sum 
'* of two hundred dollars shall be appropriated by tlie United States, for each district an- 
*' nually, and placed in the hands of the agent, to pay the expenses incurred in raising and 
*' establishing the said corps; which is to act as executive officers, in maintaining good 
** order, and compeUing bad men to remove from the nation, who are not authorized to live 
*' in it, by a regular permit of the agent." 

Now, as I understand the law of Mississippi, any person who should presume to act as a 
chief amOng the Choctaws, and to exercise the authority given him by this treaty, and put 
in action the force, which the United States not only recognize and sanction, but support 
and pay, would be subject to fine and imprisonment. If they come to the President and 
say, here is the treaty and here is your own signature and seal ; the President has been 
induced, by his official advisers, to tell them he cannot protect ihem, and to prison they 
must go, and their fine; they must pay, whenever it shall be the interest of any one to drag 
them before the Courts of Mississippi. Sir, it has been statf^d to me, I do not vouch for the 
fact, but so 1 have been informed, that since the passage of this law, the whiskey traders 
have made their inroads into the Choctaw country ; the Chiefs dare not exercise their own 
strict laws against them, for fear of incurring the severe penalties above recited ; and thus 
the first friiit of this State Legislation has been to arrest the progress of the reform, which 
had commenced and made the most extraordinary progress among^the nation, in that vice 
to which they are supposed to have the strongest natural disposition. 

I have shewn, sir, what an Indian has to fear from the laws of the States. I now feel war- 
ranted in repeating, that it is the object of this bill to appropriate a sum of money to co-operate 
I with the States in the compulsory removal of the Indians. 

Notwithstanding all that has been said to the contrary, I pronounce this to be a new poll- |^ 
I cy. We have been told that it is the established pohcy of the Government ; that many 
successive Presidents have recommended it ; and many successive Congresses Jiave appro- 
priated funds to carry it into effect ; and much surprise is expressed, that now, for the first 
Itime^it should meet with opposition. I maintain, on the contrary, that it is a new policyj 
and T challenge the proof that it is not. 

Sir, 1 do not know that even the voluntary removal of the Indians was ever regularly / 
[considered and adopted by Congress, the only power competent to adopt it. I know that, ^ 
from time to time, steps have been taken to effect such a voluntary removal, by treaties, 
land that appropriations have been made to carry the treaties into offect. This is the most 
Ithat has been done by Congress. I am aware that at the Second Session of the Eighteenth 
iCongress a bill passed the Senate, but was not, I believe, acted on in the House, which 
Imade an approach toward a systematic removal of the Indians; carefully guarded, however, 
Ito be purely voluntary ; and this bill passed at a time before the coercion of State laws was 
Ithought of. The provisions of that bill are widely diflferent from the provisions of the bill 
Ibefore us, and coincide with the judicious amendment to the latter which the gentleman 
Ifrom Pennsylvania [Mr. Hemphill] has already announced the intention of offering, and for 
[which I tender him my hearty thanks. The third section of the bill which passed the Se- 
riate in 1825, provides — 

' That the President be, and he is hereby, autliorized, by and with tlie advice and con- 
" sent of the Senate, to appoint five commissioners, to receive a reasonable compensation, 
" who shall, under his instructions, liold treaties with the Osages, the Kanzas, or any other 
tribe having just claims to the country, for a cession of territory westward of the State 
and Territory aforesaid, for the purpose above specified ; and to visit the Cherokees, 
Creeks, Choctaws, and Chickasaws, residing in North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Ala- 
bama, and Mississippi ; the Delawai'es, Kickapoos, Shawnees, Weas, loways, Pianke- 
shaws, Cherokees, and Osages, residing in Missouri and Arkansas ; and the Wyandots, 



10 



rl F p1 "River Indians, resid- 
d S the faUh of the na >0" =>s he is^» ^._.^^^ „ enactment, by Con- 

rv"«l net be^^t^oot^orio- to -q"7 P™t„ .„ be .holly novel. Its great chs- 

,,„'er tme,| ''- C;" '>-ef ?erf eLs ^ t^ ^Stt^ls^rn'rosf ^ --^Ve'^: 
ihree Years old. >> »eu i^ ^^ by the States, unaei vv destruction. T hfse 

^^rthe'm point out «- J" J,J;S IheL to remove mo^e- to -cape ^1_^^ ^^^^ 

^e?als Carroll ^"^..^f'^A fllxecutive fully concurs/ ,i,ould Ivave felt Inrns 

States over the Indians- tae - ^^etted, that the Prebidem pronounce 

turtle Delawares, "e|°^^^^",twee.i U e <^o'^^^^^^^"^ ^wnhvUe any other tribes, 

"^?.\t fs further ^S-^^ ^l^S'terests of both parUes ) ->- f^^^^^^ Confeder. 

■ cc found conducive for the iTmm ^^^^^^ United States, to lomt x ^^^ ^, 

.« states, respcr.tmg Y'^'^ ^, to Congress." -^^ i^^to eflect. Th 

.c choice, whenever they ;/^^;^^^^ ^^nH^ations we e nevei cai ^^^ ^^^^ ^.^ject of 
K is ^n^^^^^^T^ 'uSrating the opinions, held ^J^ t^atje ,^^ ^^^^ recogmzedj 

^ fument, and, eonsequen Ij l^y ^ _^); ^^^^ „( „„y sta e to he eont J.^.^^ .^^ 
part of it, an f»^^/"\be Western bank. " 1 ^^^J" mmXtelv a I'erritonal Gove 

*« sippi, in exchange tor J^^^^^l ^f ftUing up the ^^-^^^^^^l^ |f ^ range of State 



^s Nve multiply."* 
jeffeiWs Works, 111. P-'" 12. 



11 

In another letter, written 1st November, 1803, he uses still more emphatic language. — 
' Spain is afraid of her enemies in Mexico ; but not more than we are. Our policy will be 

* to form New Orleans and the country on both sides of it into a State, and as to all above 

* that, to transplant our Indians into it, constituting them a. Marechaiissee, fa mounted pa- 
' trol,J to prevent emigrants from crossing the river, until we shall have filled up all the ya- 
' cant country on this side. This will secure both Spain and us as to the mines of Mexico 
'for half a century. "f 

I have more than one object in these citations. An attempt has been made lately, on the 
itrength of a few garbled passages from the Journals of the Old Congress, to fix on New 
England the odious and improbable charge of having refused to protect the West from the 
'ndians, in order to cripple the growth of that part of the country. We here find that this 
Dolicy, if ever systematically formed, is to be traced to a quarter remote from New Eng- 
and. Mr. Jefferson proposed, in 1803, to collect the Indians on the right bank of the Mis- 
iissippi, for the express purpose of forming them into an armed guard, to prevent the emi- 
grants from crossing over. 

It must be admitted that Mr. Jefferson's project was crude enougli, although it was free 
rom m8st of the objectionable feature;s of the measure now proposed, and possessed some 
positive advantages. It contemplated no interference of State legislation, but amicable 
igreement by treaty, as appears by the act creating the Territory of Orleans and the Dis- 
:rict of Louisiana, of the 26th March, 1804. In that act, v/e find the following section : _ 

" The President of-the United States is hereby authorized to stipidate with any Indian 
'■' tribes owning lands on the East side of the Mississippi, and residing thereon, for an ex- 
•« change of lands, the property of the United States, on the West side of the Mississippi, 
" in case the said tribe shall remove and settle thereon ; but, in such stipulation, the said 
" tribes shall acknowledge themselves to be under the protection of the United States, and 
" shall agree that they will not hold any treaty with any foreign Power, individual State, or 
«« with the individuals of any State or Power ; and that they will not sell or dispose of said 
" lands, or any part thereof, to any sovereign Power, except the United States, nor to the 
"subjects nor citizens of any other sovereign Power, nor to the citizens of t!ie United 
f' States." 

We here see that the Congress of 1804 recognized the ownership of the Indians in the 
lands they occupy ; and we find no trace of that coercive State legislation, which forms the 
great objection to the present measure. In providing, also, that the Mississippi itself, and 
not an imaginary line four hundred miles West of it, should be the boundary of the Indians, 

tnd that there, for half a centmy, they should be securely entrenched, behind this mighty 
arrier, Mr. Jefferson certainly made a vastly better provision for their security, than we 
an now make. Still, however, in the idea of a successive removal of the Indians, as they 
hould be crowded on, by each new range of States, and in thus associating a place of re- 
Lige for the Indians, with the gradual extension of our own population over the same region, 
Mr. Jefferson evidently aimed at objects at war with eacli other, and attempted to promote, 
it the same time, two measures which were essentially at variance. 

Could Mr. Jefferson have executed the first part of his plan, it might have been well for 
he Indians. Unfortunately for its success, the other portion of the project began instanta- 
leously to execute itself. A principle of our political system was immediately developed, 
'n' more active in its progress, far more tenacious in its hold, than any principle that could 
applied to the preservation of the Indians. Our own population rushed over the river ; 
aey looked round on the broad new region as their own ; their own they made it ; and be- 
; Mr. Jefferson's Indian Marechausse^ could be organized, to keep ofi" the emigrants, the 
grants were sufficiently numerous to embarrass the settlement of the Indians. So that, 
ead of procuring them an asylum for fifty years, those that were sent over were subject 
he same pressure of a rapidly increasing white population, which had borne upon them 
he old States. 

ir, cpuld it be otherwise ? will it be otherwise ? What, are you indeed going to aban- 
. this region tathe Indians ? Mr. Jefferson's second range of States ? This fine tract, as 
describe it, six liundred and fifty miles long, and two hundred broad ; the garden of the 
ted States ; a fine soil, well watered, rich in coal mines, and capable of being covered 
1 forests, are you going to lock]it up, in mortmain, for the Indians ? Can we stop the 
^e of population, that flows toward it ? Will we do it ? We cannot ; we shall not. Pre- 
:ly the same process which has gone on in the East, will go on in the West. That on- 
d march, which neither the Alleghany mountains, nor the Ohio, nor the Mississippi, could 
;st, will not be checked by your meridian lines, nor parchment patents. If the land, as 
say, is good, it will never be the policy of this Government, to hold the keys of the ter- 
ry, and turn off the emigrants, that will claim to enter. A cordon of troops could not do 
Withhold your leave, and they will go without leave. They will boast themselves your 
2ens ; they will soon demand a territorial government 5 they will next swell into a sove- 
;a State ; will extend their jurisdiction over the Indians, and drive them into Texas. 
Jor was this the only difficulty in the way. Tlie first step in this great policy of remo- 
, was met by the obvious embarrassment, that the territory west of the Mississippi, toward 
iich the removal was to be made, was itself occupied by numerous warlike and powerful 
t Jefferson's Works, IV, p. 6. 



12 

tribes of Indians, of a race alien from those, whom It was proposed to remove. Previous then to 
removing' the Indians from the left bank of the river, it became necessary to remove others 
from the right bank, to make way for them. What was to become, what did become of 
those thus to be removed from the right bank ? It would require time and sources of infor- 
mation not at my command, to trace tliem into tlieir narrowed limits, and point out particu- 
larly their fate. But the nature of things teaches us what it must have been. Driven into 
closer bounds, and forced upon neighboring tribes, their removal from the hunting grounds 
to which they had been accustomed on the right bank of the Mississippi, must have been the 
source of wars, destructive to all parties, in their immediate effects, and doubly fatal in the 
interference of our arms, which it involves as a necessary consequence. Be this as it may, 
on the 8th November, 1808, a cession was made by the Great and Little Osages, of a large 
tract of land, containing a considerable part of the present State of Missouri and territory of 
Arkansas, amounting to forty-eight millions of acres, for a consideration substantially of about 
one thousand dollars joeranwum. 

As the first step in this policy of removal, the history of this treaty may be worth repeat- 
ing. In the year 1804, the [^resident of the United States gave his promise to a number of 
Osage Chiefs, then on a visit to Washington, to establish for them a trading house, on the 
plan authorized by a law of Congress in 1806. The same promise was repeated to another 
deputation, and in October 1808 the establishment took place. So far it seemed to be a 
gratuitous act ; but in the following month it assumed a different character. On the 8th 
of November, 1808, the agent of United States for the the Osages, Peter Choteau, ap- 
peared at Fort Clark. On the 10th he assembled the Chiefs of the Great and Little Osages 
in Council, and proceeded to state to them the substance of a treaty, which he said Gover- 
nor Lewis had deputed him to offer to the Osages, and to execute with them. Having briefly 
explained to them its purport, he addressed them in the following words : " You have 
«* heard this treaty explained to you, those who now come forward and sign it, shall be con- 
*' sidered the friends of the United States, and treated accordingly. Those who refuse 
*' to come forward, and sign it, shall be considered as enemies of the United States, and 
*< treated accordingly." The Osages replied in substance, ** that if their great American 
" Father wanted a part of their land, he must have it ; that he was strong and powerful, 
" they were poor and pitiful ; what covdd they do ? He had demanded their land, and 
** thought proper to offer them sometliing in return for it. They had no choice; they 
*' must either sign the treaty, or be declared the enemies of the United States." 

The treaty was accordingly signed, on the same day ; and so much were the Osages awed 
by the threats of the agent, that a very unusual number of theiTi touched the pen, many of 
whom had no conception of the purport of the act, It is asserted, in an official report to 
the Department, by the Indian factor at Fort Osage, that the treaty was not fairly understood 
by a single Osage. 

Thus the trading house, which had been established gratuitously, in conformity with the 
earnest sob citations of the Osage Chiefs, and repeated promises of the President, was made 
a pan of of the price of the lands acquired under the treaty, by the United States. The 
treaty was not ratified by the Senate, till April 1810, and the Osages complained of the 
delay of the payment of the first and second annuities, which did not take place till Septem- 
ber, 1811. The trading house was broken up, by order of the Government, in 1813, and 
was never afterwards renewed, contrary to the expectations and wishes of the Osages, who 
regarded it as the only benefit, which they derived from the treaty.* 

Such are the auspices, under which the first steps in the policy of a removal of the Indi- 
ans from the east side of the Missislppi commenced. 

About the same time, that the treaty was negociated with the Osages, a deputation from 
the Cherokees was encouraged to visit Washington. Here they conferred with Mr. Jeffer- 
son ,and I have obtained from the Indian bureau his talk to themi_on this subject. It is not 
necessary to cite it entire ; the preamble to the treaty of 1817 contains enough of the 
Ifistory of this transaction, to sho^v its nature. We are there told, that '* in the autumn of 
** the year 1808, a deputation from the upper and lower Cherokee towns, duly authorised 
*' by their nation, went on to the city of Washington, the first named to declare to .the Pre- 
'* sident of the United States their anxious desire, ^o engage in the pursuit of agriculture 
*' and civilized life, In the country they then occupied, and to make known to the Presi- 
'* dent of the United States the impractibility of inducing the nation at large to do this, and 
** to request the establishment of a division line, between the upper and lower towns, so as 
«< to include all the waters of the Highwassee river to the upper towns: that by thus contract- 
«* ing their society, within narrower limits, they proposed to begin the establishment of fixed 
" laius and a regular Government : The deputies from the lower towns, to make known their 
*< desire to continue the hunter life, and also the scarcity of game where they then lived, 
♦« and, under those circumstances, their wish to remove across the Mississippi river, on some 
*« vacant lands of the United States." 

Such was the plan, I beg it to be distinctly observed, of this policy of a voluntary removal, 
at its inception. Those who went, were to go for the purpose of continuing to lead the 

* Tliis account is derLved from a report of Mr Sibley, Indian factor at Fort Osage, in Long's expedition to the 
Rocky Mountains, Vol. II p. 245. 



13 

hunter's life . Those who staid, were to devote themselves to agriculture and civilizatioUp 
and were to establish fixed laws and a regular Government. 

The approbation of the Executive was given to the measure. Exploring parties went 
over, and selected a tract of country on the Arkansas and White river, to which a consider- 
able number from the lower towns repaired. The more vigorous prosecution of the mea- 
sure was probably retarded by the political condition of the United States. But, in the 
month of July, 1817, a treaty was negotiated at the Cherokee agency, between " Major 
»* General Andrew Jackson, Joseph M'Minn, Governor of the State of Tennessee, and Gen- 
*' eral David Meriwether, commissioners plenipotentiary of the United States of America, on 
" the one part, and the chiefs, head men and warriors, of the Cherokee nation East of 
■' the Mississippi, and the Chiefs, head men, and warriors, of the Cherokee of the Arkansas 
" river and their deputies, John D. Chisholm and James Rodgers, duly authorized by the 
" chiefs of the Cherokees on the Arkansas river, in open council, by written power of attor- 
*' ney, duly signed and executed, in presence of Joseph Sevier, and AVilliam War," This 
treaty provided for a considerable cession of the lands of the Cherokees, east of the Missis- 
sippi. It stipulated that, during the month of June, 1818, a census should be taken of those 
wlio emigrated, and those who staid behind : it guarantied the protection of the United 
States to both parties, reciting in the preamble the words of Mr. Jefferson, who declared 
'* the United States to be the friends of both parties, and willing, as far as can be reasonably 
" asked, to satisfy the wishes of both," and who promised, to those who should remain^ 
•■' the patronage, aid, and good neighborhood" of the United States ; and it provided for 
running the line between the portion of the territory which the Cherokees ceded, and that 
which they did not cede. 

Such was the treaty, and it was unanimously ratified by the Senate. Among the names 
recorded in favor of this treaty, which was negotiated in furtherance of the purpose of the 
Cherokees *^ to begin the establishment of fixed laws and a regular Government,'^ I find the 
names of George M. Troup, and Charles Tait, the Senators from Georgia. This purpose 
having been formally avowed by the Cherokee depuationin 1808, did not, of course, have 
its origin, as has been stated, in 1817 ; and the fact 1 have just mentioned shows, that it 
received, at that time, the sanction of the Representatives of Georgia in the Senate of the 
United States. 

Although it w^as the avowed purpose of the Cherokees to provide by this treaty, for a 
separation of their community, and to leave to those wiio wished to stay, a permanent home^ 
" fixed laws and a regular Government," yet the agents of the United States, under the 
instructions of the department, endeavored, with the severest urgency and pressure, to 
compel the whole nation to emigrate. For this reason, the taking of the census was 
delayed, c-ontrary to the treaty which fixed the time when it should be taken, and the 
remonstrances of the Cherokees, and high pecuniary offers were held out to them, to con- 
sent to go en masse, or accept reservations, and become subjects of the States. It is painful 
to read the documents, which contain the history of these transactions.* After all attempts 
to persuade and overbear them had failed, the project for the time was abandoned, the idea 
of 'taking a census given up, and a new treaty entered into on the 27th of February, 1819, 
by which a further cession of land was made. In the preamble to this treaty it is set forth^ 
that" the greater part of the Cherokee nation have expressed an earnest desire to remain 
** on tliis side of the Mississippi, and being desirous, in order to eommenee those measures^ 
*' which they deem necessary to the civilization and preservation of their nation, tliat the treaty 
*' between the United States and them, signed 8th of July 1817, might, without further 
" delay or the trouble and expense of taking the census, as stipulated in said treaty, be 
" finally adjusted, have offered to cede to the United States a tract of land at least as ex- 
' tensive as that, which they probably are entitled to, under its provisions." 

This treaty was also unanimously ratified by the Senate, receiving in its favor the vote of 
Mr. Tait, the only Senator from Georgia, recorded as voting on the cjuestion. 

The whole number of Cherokees, who emigrated to Arkansas, before the treaty of 1817, 
or pursuant to its provisions, is supposed to have been five or six thousand. They are 
believed to have suffered severely, for several years after their emigrr.tion. They immedi» 
iitely became involved in war with the Osages and other tribes of Indians, west of the river :, 
and when a proposal was again made in 1823, to the Cherokees, under a new commission, 
to cede their remaining lands, and cross the river, they refused, alleging that " the unfortu- 
" nate part of our nation, who have emigrated west of the Mississippi, liave suffered severe- 
*• ly since tlieir separation from this nation, and settlement in their new country. Sickness, 
" wars, and other fatality have visited them, and lessened their numbers, and many of them, 
*' no doubt, would willingly return to the land of their nativity, if it was practicable for them 
*' to do so, without undergoing various difficulties, which would be almost insurmountable, 
" in so long a journey, by men, women, and children, without friends and without money." 

The Commissioners appointed to make this renewed attempt in 1823, stated in writing, to 
the Council of the Cherokee nation, that they were happy in being afforded *' an opportu- 
*' nity of becoming partially acquainted with several members of the Council." For the 

* Senate documents for the first session of the 18lh Congress : Vol. 3, No. 63. 



14 

whole body, say they, "we entertain a liigh respect, and we trust that with some of you we 
*' have contracted individual friendships. In saying this, we do no violence to our own feel- 
'* ings, neither do we lower the elevated character of the United States. People, who 
** have never seen you, know but little of your progress in the arts of civdized life, and of 
" the regulai* and becoming manner in which your affairs are conducted." 

The same Commissioners, (Duncan G. Campbell and James Meriwether,) after exhibiting 
to the Cherokees the compact with Georgia of 1802, proceed to say, — " By these articles 
*' you discover the rights of Georgia, and the obligations of, the United States. That these 
** rights may be fulfilled and these obligations discharged is the important object of the 
*• present mission. The sovereignty of the country you occupy is in the United States alone ,- 
** no State or foreign power can enter into a treaty with you. These privileges have pass- 
** ed away, and your intercourse is restricted exclusively to the United States. In matters of 
*' cession or territory you are recognized as a contracting party." 

The Cherokees having refused to cede their lands and emigrate, for the reasons in part 
already given, drawn from the suffering condition of their brethren in Arkansas, despatched a 
delegation to Washington, in 1824, to make knov/fl their determination to the Government to 
cede no more land. This purpose they communicated to the President and Secretary of War. 
They also addressed a memorial to the House of Representatives. Tn this paper they say, 
" the Clierokees are informed on the situation of the country west of the Mississippi river. 
*' And there is not a spot out of the limits of any of the States, that they would ever con- 
*' sent to inhabit, because they have unequivocally determined never again to pursue the 
*' chase as heretofore, or to engage in wars, unless by the special call of the Government, to 
'■ * defend the common rights of the United States. As a removal to the barren waste bor- 
** dering on the Rocky Mountains, where water and timber are scarely to be seen, could be 
** for no other object or inducement than to pursue the buffalo, and to wage war with the 
** uncultivated Indians, in *that hemisphere, imposing facts speak from the experience 
*' which has been so repeatedly realized, that such a state of things would be the result, were 
*' they to emigrate. But such an event will never take place. The Cherokees have turned 
*' their attention to the pursuits of the civilized man. Agriculture, manufactures, the me- 
** ehanic arts, and education, are all in successful operation, in the nation, at this time ^ and 
" whilst the Cherokees are peacefully endeavoring to enjoy the blessings of civilization and 
" Christianity, on the soil of their rightful inhetitance ; and whilst the exertions and labors 
** of various religious societies of these United States are successfully engaged in promulgating 
«' to them the word of truth and life, from the sacred volume of holy writ, and imder the 
*' patronage of the General Government they are threatened with removal or extinction. 
«* This subject is now before your honorable body for a decision. We appeal to themagnanim- 
* ' ity of the American Congress for justice, and the protecton of the rights, liberties, and lives 
" of the Cherokee people. We claim it from the United States, by the strongest obligations, 
*' imposed on them by treaties ; and we expect it from them under that memorable declaration 
*' that all men are created equa ; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain 
'* inalienable rights ; that among tliem are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." 

After this positive and solemn refusal, no further direct attempt was made to carry into 
execution upon the Cherokees the policy of removal. 

Let us now contemplate for a moment, the situation of the Cherokees removed to the 
Territory of Arkansas. I have already stated, in general terms, that they were immediately 
involved' in wars with the neighboring tribes; and the statement above cited as to their 
unhappy condition, when made in 1823 by the Cherokees east of the Mississippi, as a rea- 
son for refusing to emigrate, was not controverted by the Commissioners of the United 
States. But the active benevolence of the friends of humanity, and the bounty of the 
Government, had followed them to their new abode. The missionary establishments and 
schools were flourishing ; and though the object for which they emigrated, that of re- 
suming the hunier's life, seemed to be abandoned, the better object of advanciiig in 
civili/iation was in a course of fulfilment. Meantime, however, the population of Arkansas 
began to press upon, and at length it was thought necessary that they should again remove. In 
a letter of Rev. Mr. Washburn, from D wight, a missionary station in Arkansas, it is stated 
as follows : *' from the facts above detailed, it will appear, that the efforts, which have been 
*' made for the improvement of this portion of the American aboriginies have not been 
*' without important results ; and that among these results, it is not the least important, 
*' that the natives are led to place a high value upon education, to desire its general diffu- 
** sion among them, and to exert themselves for the maintainance of schools. These re- 
** suits connected with the belief, that this part of the Cherokees were settled, where the 
*• cupidity of our own people would not be likely to disturb them, presented to our minds the 
*' cheering prospect, that they would soon exhibit to the view of the philanthropist, a most 
** interesting spectacle, that of a people, reclaimed from ignorance, barbarity, and vice, and 
** elevated to intelligence, refinement and virtue, and surrounded with the comforts and 
*• elegancies of the useful and liberal arts. We expected soon to see their country, which 
** was lately a wildernesss, covered with fruitful fields, surrounding comfortable and conve- 



^5 

" nient habitations, and storehouses, and here and there decorated with edifices for literary 
*< and scientific improvement, and temples for the worship of the great and beneficent Fa- 
*' ther of all the kindred of the earth. Such, sir, were our expectations, when we received 
••' intellig-ence, that, by a new Convention entered into by a delegation of the Chiefs and 
*' the late Secretary of War, these poor people must again relinquish their homes, their 
" improvements, and for a time their privileges, and seek a new residence in the wilderness." 
It is true the author of this letter expresses th^opinion, that this second removal will be 
ultimately beneficial to the Cherokees'of Arkansas. He rests .this opinion on the supposed 
security of their last retreat from further invasion, on the liberal indemnity given for their 
property, and on the advantageous character of the new country. But the former circum- 
stance, as I have already stated, will infalhbly lead to further encroachments. To suppose 
that they will be permitted long to remain unmolested is the merest dream of fancy. 

Such has been the result of the experiment of finding a ** permanent home " for the 
Cherokees, west of the Mississippi. The next .experiment on the Southern Indians was 
made upon the Choctaws. Here, too, it was necessary to begin by clearing the way. 

As there was no territory suitable for the purpose, to which the title had been extin- 
guished. West of the Mississippi, it was deemed to be expedient to remove the Quapaws, 
a tribe occupying the Southern part of Arkansas. This tribe, otherwise known as the 
Arkansas, or Osarks, had been distinguished, in the annals of the natives of America, for 
their fine physical qualities, and mild, but warlike temper. They were kindred w^ith the 
Osages, and, like them, hereditary foes of* their neighbors East of the Mississippi. At 
the period when the pohcy of the United States was brought to bear upon them, they 
had sunk into weakness, and found in us a protector, who pressed that weakness to the 
dust. In the general statement of the Indian tribes of the United States, which was made 
by Governors Cass and Clark, they are called an "unfortunate" people. And with good 
reason. In 1818 a treaty was concluded at St. Louis, by w^hich the Quapaws ceded a very 
large tract of country occupied by them. South of the Arkansas river, with some considerable 
reservations. For this they were paid about four thousand dollars, and the amount ceded 
was over twenty-nine millions of acres. They reserved about one million five hundred 
thousand acres to themselves. By the fourth article, they were to be protected from all 
intrusion. That article provided that *'no citizen of the United States, or any other 
*' person, shall be permitted to settle on any of the lands hereby allotted to and reserved 
*' for the said Quapaw tribe or nation, to live and hunt on." A stipulation, of which we 
shall presently see the value. 

Having thus prepared a country to which they could be removed, in 1820, the treaty of 
Doak's Stand vras negotiated, between the whole Choctaw Nation and General Jackson 
and General Hinds, by which that tribe ceded a large tract of land in the interior of the 
State of Mississippi, and received in exchange an extensive and valuable tract, South of 
the Arkansas. The motive of the cession was, in the preamble to the treaty, expressed jn 
the following terms : " Whereas, it is an important object with the President of the U. 
*' States to promote the civilization of the Choctaw Indians, hy the establishment of schools 
*' among themy and to perpetuate them as a nation, by exchanging, for a small part of their 
*' land here, a country beyond the Mississippi river, vk^here all who five by hunting, and 
*' will not work, may be collected and settled together," &c. 

The seventh article provided for the sale of fifty -four sections of land, one mile square, 
out of the land ceded, to be applied for the support of Choctaw scliools, on either side 
of the Mississippi ; and the fourth article expressly stipulated that," the boundaries here- 
*' by established between the Choctaw Indians and the United States, on this side of the 
*' Mississippi river, shall remain, without alteration, until the period at which said Nation 
** shall become so civilized and enlightened as to be made citizens of the United States, 
'• and Congress shall lay off a limited parcel of land for the benefit of each family or indi- 
*' Vidual in the nation." 

Very few Choctaws have crossed the Mississippi, in consequence of this treaty, and 
those mostly fugitives. The regular support of an agency, in the new country, is the 
most tangible result of the arrangement. The Choctaws were in a state of hereditary 
hostility with the Osages, whose hunting range extended to the tract ceded to them, and 
this circumstance may have prevented their going over the river. 

I have already stated that a cession of territory was obtained from the Quapaws, to be 
given to the Choctaws, in exchange for a portion of their lands East of the Mississippi, 
and that, at the same time, a considerable reservation was made for the Quapaws. It was 
expressly stipulated that this reservation should not be intruded on. In 1824, however, 
this reserved tract was taken from them, in consideration of a certain sum of money to 
the Chiefs, and an increase of the annuity to the Nation, and it was provided, in the 4th 
article of the treaty, that "the Quapaw tribe of Indians will hereafter be concentrated 
*' and confined to the district of country inhabited by the Caddo Indians, and form a part 
*' of said tribe." 

This junction of the Quapaws with the Caddos was made without the previous consent 
of the latter. It became necessary, to " disencumber the Caddo lands of squatters," to 



16 

receive the new comers. The Indian tribes thus thrown together speak languages totally. 
different. The Quapaws would not leave their reservation, till told tliat they could be 
allowed to stay no longer ; and arrived, in a starving condition, at their new home, although 
removed and supported by the United States. On their arrival, the agent writes to the 
Secretary of War, that he was *' fearful the Quapaws will be very troublesome to the 
*' white settlements, this Summer, owing to their being destitute of provisions, and, of 
*• course, must be in a starving condition shortly, and being in a strange country, where 
** game is very scarce. Corn is now selling ^n Red River at one dollar and twenty -five cents 
" per bushel, and scarce." The accounts of the next year represent them as being in a 
better condition ; but, at a still later date, they are said to have wandered back, in part, 
to their former seats. They are an unhappy remnant, likely soon to be wholly consumed, 
by these capricious changes. 

Fortiniately for the Choctaws, they were in no haste to remove to their new permanent 
home in Arkansas. In 1825, it was found that the convenience of the settlements in Ar- 
kansas required the retrocession, to the United States, of a portion of the land ceded to 
the Choctaws, at Doak's Stand. This retrocession was accordingly made ; a new boundary 
on the West, was established, for the territory of Arkansas, and the white settlers found 
beyond it were removed by force. Precisely such a series of removals on removals, from one 
permanent home to another permanent home, has taken place with the tribes of North- 
we'stern Indians ^ but I forbear to go into the detail. I have said enough to show the va- 
nity of the lure of permanence, which has been, and is held out, to tempt the Indians to 
the Western desert. 

The Cherokee treaties of 1817 and 1819, and the Choctaw treaty of Doak's Stand, ap- 
pear to be all, that was effectually done toward the voluntary renqoval of the Southern 
tribes. An abortive attempt, to which I have alluded, was made on the Cherokees, in 
1823, and another upon the Creeks in 1824. In the Winter of 1825, and in the last year 
of his administration, Mr. Monroe, in a message to Congress, proposed a general plan for 
the removal and embodying, beyond the Mississippi, of all the tribes of Indians, fixed within 
the States. Nothing was farther from the contemplation of Mr. Monroe, than the attain- 
ment of this measure, by the compulsory action of State laws. In pursuance of the policy 
recommended by him, a bill was passed in the Senate, of which the substantial features 
have been already referred to. 

Simultaneously with these movements at Washington, the treaty of the Indian Springs 
was negotiated, in Georgia, with a small party of the Creek Nation » assuming to act for the 
tribe. By this treaty, it was stipulated, that, for their lands ceded, the Creeks should re^ 
ceive acre for acre of land between the Arkansas and Canadian Fork. It is unnecessary to 
repeat the painful history of this treaty. It was superseded* by that of Washington, of the 
following year, in which a similar provision was contained for the removal of those desi- 
rous of going. Parties went forward to explore the country, and two bands of emigrants, 
one of 1200, and the other of 1300, have crossed the Mississippi. 

In the year 1826 a vigoroiis effort was made to negotiate a treaty of cession with the Choc- 
taws and Chickasaws. Generals Clark, Hinds, and Coffee, were the commissioners on the 
part of the United States. To their urgent representations of the expediency of the re- 
moval, and of the strong desire which the United States felt, that the Choctaws would con- 
sent to go, the following objections were stated by the Choctaw Chiefs : 

"It would be needless to enter into the various reasons which have determined us to de- 
** cline the acceptance of your proposal. 

" It is sufficient that this is the land of our birth, and that, when once sold, it could not be 
'*• i*ecovered. It is a sure asylum for our infirm and aged countrymen, where surrounded by 
*• their offspring, and among the, plains, and the hills, and the streams of their youth, they 
«' might pass the remnant of their days in peace ; and where, if undisturbed, we may all 
*• remain as prosperous and happy as in any other country. Here our forefathers have lived y 
** here we wish to live 5 and, when we die, let our bones be laid by the side of those of our 
** kindred. Why should we sell ? Why seek new homes, when we are living here in peace, 
*' and, to such as are reasonably industrious, in plenty? But it is urged, that the game is 
*' gone, and that those who live by hunting alone are suffering. For all such, a country i& 
'' provided. Six years ago we sold a large scope of our country here, for lands west of the 
*' Mississippi. Let those who wish to live by hunting, go there. Ample provision is made 
*' for all such, by the treaty of Doak's Stand, and all are free to go who wish it. But those of 
** us, who cultivate the earth, will remain here." Alluding in another letter to the repeated 
cessions demanded of them, the Chiefs say : •' By the treaty of Doak's Stand, lands were 
♦' given us west of the Mississippi ; and here again we were assailed by propositions to pur- 
♦* chase back a portion of the country just ceded to us. We listened to our father, the 
*« President. We sent a deputation of head men to the City of Washington, who ceded 
*' back several millions of acres, for the benefit of Arkansas. Again, last Winter, another 
** proposition was sent to the nation, requesting that we should cede back a further portion 
«' of our lands west of the Mississippi ; and, finally, we are now urged to sell all, or a por- 
*• tion, of our country here. Where shall we stop ? Where shall we find a resting place ? 
*' We ought to l^e permitted at least to breathe awhile and look around us." 



. IT 

Failing- in their attempts with the Choctaw ti, the same commissioners entered into treaty 
with the*^Chickasaws, but with hke want of success. Among other objections urged by the 
Chickasaw Chiefs, the following is founded in reason and truth : " Friends and brothers, we 
*' know that our white brothers are crowding on us daily, which we know is not just. 
** V/e further consider that there is a number of nations west of the Mississippi that have been 
** enemies to us, as well as to our white brothers. It would be as much impossible to unite 
** us with them, as it would to unite oil and water ; and we have every reason to believe 
^' that those tribes that have left their country are not well satisfied ; and if that shou.ld be the 
** case, we are fearful that those tribes will take satisfaction of us, for injuries done by us, as 
** well as our white brothers. We are a small tribe, and unable to defend our rights in any 
** country." 

The following year a tour was made to the Southern tribes by the officer at the head of 
the Bureau of Indian Affairs, under the direction of the Secretary of War, and further at- 
tmepts made by him to induce the Choctaws and Chickasaws to consent to remove. His 
efforts were limited to persuading them to send a party to visit the country west of Arkan- 
sas i and a provisional consent was obtained of the Chickasaws, that, if the country pleased 
them, and could be delivered to them unincumbered by any population, and guarantied to 
theui forever, they would remove to it. Other conditions also were attached to this provi" 
sional consent, such as that all their houses, mills, fences, workshops, and orchards, should 
foe replaced by others as good, in the new country. 

Of the sort of argument by which their slow consent to these terms was obtained, the 
following specimen will enable the House to form an opinion : 

*' Brothers : It is said, since you did not agree to the proposals of the commissioners, that 
** you are a self-willed and obstinate People : I do not believe it ; but many people who do 
" not know you as well as I do, may incline to think this is true. This, as far as it may be 
" believed, will lessen the number of y-our friends, and these are few— you have none to 
*' spare/" 

After repeating in the most urgent terms the request that they would agree to send a 
party of exploration, this officer adds : " If you do not, I shall still fear, for the storm about 
** Indian lands is terrible indeed J I wish to screen you from it." 

In pursuance of the arrangements made by Colonel McKenney, a party of Chickasaw^s and 
Choctaws visited the country west of Arkansas, in company with Mr. McCoy. Of the result 
of this visit, I shall ask permission, before I sit down, to say a few words. 

Such, sir, are a few of the facts relative to this policy of removal applied to the Southern 
Indians. It has proved utterly abortive, so long as it was conducted on the only rightful and 
eqyiitable principle, that of the free consent of the Indians. It is because their free consent 
could not be obtained ; it is because it is well known that voluntarily they would never ^o, 
tliat the States have extended over them a coercive legislation, under which it is avowed 
tliat they cannot and will Jiot live ; and now we are asked to furnish the means to effect 
their voluntary removal. 

As for the idea that this retreat west of the Mississippi is to be a safe and undisturbed 
abode, the facts to which I have alluded, shew that it is a mere mockery. 5Ve see one un- 
fortunate remnant driven from a reservation which six years before had been spared to them 
out of the cession of a vast territory, and on the condition that their reservation should not 
be intruded on. We see the Choctaws assailed by a demand for more lands at the same 
time on both sides of the river. They are to give up on the east side, and give back on the 
west side, after both sides had been guarantied to them by all the sanctions of the Govern- 
ment. The Cherokees are enticed into Arkansas, with the assurance that the protection of 
the United States should follow them there. Here they are to have a permanent home. 
Here the arm of the white man shall not be long enough to reach them. In a few years the 
advanced guard of your population is upon them ; their flank is turned, their rear is cut off. 
riie Territory of Arkansas, in which there is an estimated population of one to the square mile, 
is sadly crowded ^ there is no room for the Indians ; they inust leave their settlements, just 
beginning to thrive, their houses, their farms, their schools and churches, and remove be- 
yond the frontier, to a new permanent home. Tv/o parties of Creeks have followed the ex- 
ample, and gone to their permanent home on lands just allotted to the Choctaws and Chero- 
kees. It will probably be among their first occupations to fight for their title to this land of 
efuge ; particularly wiien seventy-five thousand recruits come pouring in, (driven forward 
by " a few troops," who, we are told, will be needed to aid in this voluntary removal,) and 
who are to find their permanent home in the wilderness already granted away. 

Sir, if you really do carry out this policy, its wretched objects will indeed come to a per- 
manent home, in its execution, of a nature different from that you profess to contemplate. 
You will soon drive them up to that bourne from which neither emigrant nor traveller re- 
turns. 

This is the effect, whatever be the provisions of the bill. But let us, Mr. Speaker, con- 

mplate it more closely. What is, in the general, the necessary character of a measure like 
this, a forced removal of whole tribes of Indians from their native districts to a distant wil- 
derness. I will give it, sir, not in my own language, but in that of the President of the 
United States, at the commencement of the session : 
2 



18 

"The condition and ulterior destiny of the Indian tribes within tlie limits of some of our 
^* States, have become objects of much interest and importance. It has long been the po- 
•' licy of Government to introduce among- them the arts of civilization, in the hope of gradu- 
'*ally reclaiming them from a wandering life. This policy has, however, been coupled 
*y with another wholly incompatible with its success. Professing a desire to civilize and settle 
** them, we have, at the same time, lost no opportunity to purchase their lands, and thrust 
*' them further into the wilderness. By this means they have not only been kept in a wan- 
" deving state, but beeri led to look on us as unjust and indifferent to their fate. Thus, though 
** lavish in its expenditures upon the subject, Government has constantly defeated its own 
** policy ; and the Indians, in general, receding further and further to the west, have retained 
*' their savage habits. A portion, however, of the Southern tribes having mingled much with 
** the v/hites, and made some progress in the arts of civilized life, have lately attempted to erect 
** an independent Government within the limits of Georgia and Alabama. These States 
*' claiming to be the only sovereigns within their territories, extended their laws over the In- 
*' dians, which induced the latter to call upon the United States for protection " 

Such is the President's view of the effect of removing Indians westward. Those who have 
been removed, have been kept wandering and savage. Some who have staid, have made 
great progress in civilization ; but having undertaken "the establishment of fixed laws and a 
permanent Government," agreeably to the provisions of a treaty negotiated with them by the 
President himself, and approved by the Georgia Senators, that State has extended laws over 
them which will have the effect of driving them into the wilderness, and against these law& 
the President cannot protect them ! One scarce believes, that it is in this way, that a project 
for a general sweeping removal of all the Indians against their will, to the distant wilderness 
is to be introduced to our favorable notice. ^ 

Let us view this subject, sir, in a practical light. Let us not talk of it by a name, but con- 
sider it as a thing. What sort of a process is it when actually gone through, this removal to 
the distant wilderness ? The people whom we are to remove are Indians it is true, but let us 
not be deluded by names. We are legislating on the fate of men dependent on us for their 
salvation or their ruin. They are Indians, but they are not all savages ; they are not any of 
them savages. They are not wild hunters. They are, at least some of the Southern Indians are, 
a civilized people. They have not, in all their tribes, purged off every relic of barbarism, but 
they are essentially a civilized people. They are civilized, not in the same degree that we 
are, but in the same way that we are. I am well informed, that there is probably not a single 
Cherokee family that subsists exclusively in the ancient savage mode. Each family has its 
little farm, and derives a part at least of its support, from agriculture or some other branch of 
civilized industry. Are such men savages f Are such men proper persons to be driven from 
home, and sent to hunt buffalo in the distant wilderness ? They are planters and farmers, 
trades-people, snd mechanics. They have cornfields and orchards, looms, and workshops, 
schools and churches, and orderly institutions. Sir, the political communities of a large por- 
tion of civ lized and Christian Europe might well be proud to exhibit such a table of statistics. 
as I will read you. 

[Here Mr. Everett read the following table : ] 

^^A STATISTICAL TABLE exhibiting the Population of the Cherokee Nation, as enume- 
rated in 1824, agreeably to a resolution of the Legislative Council ; also, of Property, &c-. 
as stated. 

Population . - .^ - - . . . 15,560 

Male Negroes - - -* - - - - 610 ^ ^ g^jr 

Female Negroes ....-- 6675 ' 

Grand Total of Males and Females . - . - . 13,783 

Total number of Females, - - - - - - 6,900 

Females over 40 years of age - - - - . - 782 

Females from 15 to 40 years • - - - - - 3,108 

Females under 15 years of age - . - . - . 3,010 

Total number of Males - - - - - - 6,883 

Malesover 59 years of age ...... 352 

Males from 18 to 59 years of age . - - - , 3,027 
Males under 18 years of age - - ' . ' " ' 3,054 
Add for those who have since removed into the nation from North Ca- 
rolina, who were living in that State on reservations - - 500 

*' REMARKS. 

" There are one hundred and forty-seven white men married <o Cherokee women, and sixty- 
«' eight Cherokee men married to white women. 

«♦ There are 18 schools in the nation, and 314 scholars of both sexes, 36 grist mills, 13 saw- 
" mills, 762 looms, 2,486 spinning wheels, 172 wagons, 2^923 ploughs, 7,683 horses, 22,531 



19 

*■'■ black cattle, 46,732 swine, 2,566 sheep,'430 goats, 62 blacksmith's shops, 9 stores, 2 tan- 
'■* yards, and 1 powder-mill, besides many other items not enumerated ^ and there are several 
*' public roads, and ferries and turnpikes, in the nation." 

These, sir, are your barbarians ; these are your savages ; these your hunters, whom 
3'ou ai*e going to expel from their homes, and send out to the pathless prairies of the West, 
iAiere to pursue the buffalo, as he ranges periodically from south to north, and from north to 
south ; and you will do it for their good ! 

But I shall be told, perhaps, that the Cherokees are more advanced than their red brethren 
in civilization. They may be so, but to a less extent, I imagine than is generally thought. 
What is the condition of the Choctaws ? I quote a letter from one of the missionaries to that 
tribe, communicated to the Senate, by the Department of War, during the present Session. 
After stating that a very great and general reformation of the vice of intemperance had, 
within a few years, taken place, Mr. Kingsbury proceeds : 

*' The result of a census taken in 1828, in the north-east district, was as follows, viz : popu- 
*« lation, 5,62r ; neat cattle, 11,661 ; horses, 3,974 ; oxen, 112 ; hogs, 22,047 ; sheep, 136 ; 
** spinning wheels, 530 ; looms, 124 ; ploughs, 360 ; wagons, 32 ; blacksmith's shops, 7 ; 
" coopers' shops, 2 ; carpenters' shops, 2; white men with Choctaw families, 22; schools, 
*• 5 ; scholars in the course of instruction, about 150. In one clan, with a populationof 313, 
** who eight years ago were almost entirely destitute of property, grossly intemperate, and 
*' roaming from place to place, there are now 188 horses, 511 cattle, 853 hogs, 7 looms, 68 
** spinning wheels, 35 ploughs, 6 oxen, 1 school, and 20 or 24 scholars.f 

*• Another evidence of the progress of improvement among the Choctaws, is the organiza- 
** tion of a civil government. In 1826 a general council was convened, at which the constitution 
** was adopted, and legislative powers were delegated to a national committee and council, 
** whose acts, when approved by the chiefs, became the supreme laws of the land. I have now 
** before me, a manuscript code, containing 22 laws, which have been enacted by the con- 
'* stituted authorities, and, so far as I know, carried into complete execution. Among the 
** subjects embraced by these laws, are theft, murder, infanticide, marriage, polygamy, the 
** making of wills, and settling of estates, trespass, false testimony, what sliall be considered 
*' lawful enclosures around fields, &c. 

" A great desire for the education of their children, furnishes another proof of the ad- 
"^^ vancement of the Choctaws. Petitions are frequently made, requesting the estabhshment 
*• of new schools. Numbers more have applied for admission to the boarding schools than 
•* could be received. Nothing is now wanting but suitable persons and adequate means to 
'* extend the advantages of education to all parts of the Choctaw nation. / 

" The preaching of the Gospel has, within the two past years, been attended with very hap- 
** py effects. To its influence must be ascribed much of that impulse,which has recently been 
'** given to the progress of civilization, in the more favored parts of the nation. The light 
*« which the Gospel has diffused and the moral principles it.has imparted to the adult Choc- 
«* taws, have laid a foundation for stability and permanency in their improvements. In this 
«* district, eighty-two natives, principally heads of families, are members of the church. All 
*' these, with one exception, have maintained a consistent Christian character, and would do 
*< honor to any Christian community.*' 

Nor is the condition of the Chickasaws less advanced and improving. From the official 
return of Colonel M'Kenney,it appears that their numbers are but about four thousand. They 
are estimated by him, to possess eight hundred houses of an average value of one hundred 
and fifty dollars, with some that must have cost one or two thousand. He supposes them 
to bave 10 mills, 50 workshops, enclosures of fields to the value of fifty thousand dollars ; 
and an average of stock to each, of 2 horses, 2 cows, 5 hogs, and a dozen of poultry. 

I know, sir, that there is in the same document on the civilization of the Indians, commu- 
nicated to the Senate, (meagre at the best, compared with the ample materials for such a 
document, in possession of the Department) a letter, which tells you, that the Choctaws, ex- 
cept where the schools are, and where the half breeds live, are, in every sense of the word, 
genuine Indians. No g^€wem/ improvement in any thing appears to pervac?e the country. I 
will rely more on this expression of opinion, when I am better informed of the disinterest- 
edness of its source. 

Such are the people we are going to remove from their homes : people, living as we do, 
by husbandry, and the mechanic arts, and the industrious trades ^ and so much the more in- 
teresting, as they present the experiment of a people rising from barbarity, into civilizaticfn. 
We are going to remove them from these their homes, to a distant wilderness. Whoever 
heard of such a thing before ? Whoever read of such a project ? Ten or fifteen thousand 
families, to be rooted up, and carried hundreds, aye, a thousand of miles into the wilder- 
ness ! There is not such a thing in the annals of mankind. It was the practice — the 
barbarous and truly savage practice— of the polished nations of antiquity to bring home a part 

t This is but the return of one district, probably less than a third of the nation. 



20 

of tlie population of conquered countries, as slaves. It was a cruel exercise of the rights of 
the conqueror, as then understood, and in turn practised, by all nations. But in time of peace, 
toward unoflending- communities, subject to our sovereignty indeed, but possessing rights 
guarantied to them, bv more than one hundred treaties, to remove them, against their will, 
by thousands, to a distant and a different country, where they must lead a new life, and form 
other habits, and encounter the perils and hardships of a wilderness : sir, I never heard 
such a thing ; it is an experiment on human life and Iniman happiness of perilous novelty. 
Gentlemen, who favor the project, cannot have viewed it as it is. They think of a march of 
Indian warriors, penetrating with their accustomed Vigor, the forest or the cane brake — they 
think of the yoathful Indian hunter, going forth exultingly to the chase. Sir, it is no such 
thing. This is all past ; it is matter of distant tradition, and poetical fancy.- They have no- 
thing now left of the Indian, but his social and political inferiority. They are to go in fami- 
lies, the old and the young, wives and children, the feeble, the sick. And how are they to 
go ? Not in luxurious carriages ; they are poor. Not in stage coaches ; they go to a region 
where there are none. Not even in wagons, nor on horseback, for they are to go in the least 
expensive manner possible. They are to go on foot : nay, they are to be driven by contract. 
The price has been reduced, and is still further to be reduced, and it is to be reduced, by 
sending them by contract. It is to be screwed down to the least farthing, to eight 
dollars per head. A community of civilized people of all ages, sexes, and conditions of bo- 
dilv health, are to be dragged hundj'eds of miles, over mountains, rivers, and deserts, 
where there are no roads, no bridges, no habitations, and this is to be done for eight 
dollars a head ; and done by contract. The question is to be, what is the least for which 
you will take so many hundred families, averaging so many infirm old men, so many little 
children, so many lame, feeble and sick ? "What will you contract for ? The imagination 
sickens at the thought of what will happen to a company of these emigrants, which may- 
prove less strong, less able to pursue the journey than was anticipated. Will the contractor 
stop for the old men to rest, for the sick to get well; for the fainting w'omen and children to 
revive ? He will not ; he cannot afford to. And this process is'tobe extended to every fami- 
ly, in a population of seventy-five thousand souls. This is what w-e call the removal of the 
Indians ! 

It is very easy to talk of this subject, reposing on these luxurious chairs, and protected 
by tliese massy walls, and this gorgeous canopy, from the power of the elements. Remo- 
val is a soft word, and words are delusive. But let gentlemen take the matter home to 
tiiemsehes and their neighbors. There are 75,000 Indians to be remo-/ed. This is not 
much less than the population of two congressional districts. We are going, then, to take 
a population of Indians, of families, w^ho live as we do in houses, work as we do in the field 
or the workshop, at the plough and the loom, who are governed as we. are by laws, who send 
tlieir children to school, and who attend themselves on the ministry of the Christian faith, 
to march tiiera from their homes, and put them down in a remote unexplored desert. We 
are going to do it — this Congress is going to do it — this is a bill to do it. Now let any gen- 
tleman tiiink how he would stand, were he to go home and tell his constituents, that they 
were to be removed, whole counties of them — they must fiy before the wratli of in- 
supportable laws— they must go to the distant desert, beyond Arkansas — go for eight dollars 
a head, by contract * — that tliis was the policy of the Government — that the bill hnd passed — 
the money was voted— you hud voted for it — and go they must. 

Is tlie case any the less strong, because it applies to these poor unrepresented tribes, 
•' who have no friends to spare ?" If they have rights, are not those rights sacred — as 
sacred as ours — as sacred as the rights of any congressional district '> Are there two kinds 
of rights, rights of the strong, which you respect because you must, and rights of the weak, 
en which you trample, because you dare ? I ask gentlemen again to think what this mea- 
sure isy not what it is called. To reftect on the reception, it would meet with, if proposed 
to those who are able to make tlieir wishes respected, and especially if proposed to them 
fur their good. Why, sir, if you were to go to the least favored district in the Union — the 
poorest soil — the severest chmate — the most unhealthy region, and ask them thus to re- 
move, were it but to th? next State, they would not listen to you ; they would not stir an 
inch. But to take up hundreds and thousands of famihes, to carry them ofl' unmeasured 
distances, and scatter them over a wilderness unknown to civihzedrnan, — they would think 
you insane to name it ! 

What sort of a region these unhappy tribes are to be removed to, I will presently inquire. 
Let us sec what sort of a region they are to leave. 

And now, sir, I am going to quote an account, vvhich I candidly admit to be in all likeli- 
hood oversUited. It proeeeds from a patriotic native pen, and who can rest within the lim- 
its of exact reality, in describing the merits of a^beloved native land ? I beheve it a little 

Having l)(.stow€d some reflection upon tliC subject, in conclusion, I would suggest for your consi<leration» 



« <c 



\vhetlier tliehest and cheapest mode of re'moving Uie Indians, should they consent t»>'go, would not be by fo;(- 
trnct, at so much Aer head. I feel perfectly safe in hazarding the opinion, that it will not cost, on an avensge, 
more than eight Ao\\?in>per Itead. to remove every Indian East of the Mississippi to the country winch has beeu 
•elected for them West of it." Letter vf the Second Auditor, to the Secretary of War, 12th April, 1830. 



21 

colored, but the elements of truth are there. It is plain, from the circumstance and detail, 
that it is substantially correct. At any rate, since I have been a Member of Congress, it has 
been twice, and I believe three times communicated, from the War Department, as official 
information. It is from a letter written by David Brown, a native Cherokee, of mixed blood, 
dated Willstown, (Cherokee Nation,) September 2, 1825. 

** The Cherokee nation, you know, is in about 35 degrees north latitude ; bounded on 
** the noith and west by the State of Tennessee ; on the south by Alabama, and on the east 
** by Georgia and N. Carolina. This country is well watered ; abundant springs of pure 
*' water are found in every part. A range of majestic and lofty mountains stretch them- 
** selves across the nation. The northern part of the nation is hilly and mountainous. In 
^' the southern and western parts, there are extensive and fertile plains, covered partly with 
**tall trees, through which beautiful streams of water glide. These plains furnish immense 
""pasturage, and numberless herds of cattle are dispersed over them. Horses are plenty, 
'' and are used for servile purposes. Numerous flocks of sheep, goats, and swine, cover the 
*' valleys and hills. On Tennessee, Ustanala, and Canasagi rivers, Cherokee commerce 
"'floats. The climate is delicious and healthy ; the winters are mild. The spring clothes 
^' the ground with its richest scenery. Cherokee flowers, of exquisite beauty and variegated 
*' hues, meet and fascinate the eye in every direction. la the plains and valleys, the soil is 
** generally rich ; producing Indian corn, cotton, tobacco, wheat, oats, indigo, sweet and 
" Irish potatoes. The .natives carry on considerable trade with the adjoining States; and 
"some of them export cotton in boats, down the Tennessee, to the Mississippi, and down 
** that river to New Orleans. Apple and peach orchards are quite common, ;ind gardens 
^' are cultivated, and much attention paid to them. Butter and cheese are seenK)n Chero- 
" kee tables. There are many public roads in the nation, and houses of entertainment kept 
*' by natives. Numerous and flourishing villages are seen in every section of the country. 
*' Cotton and woollen cloths are manufactured here. Blankets of various dimensions, manu- 
** factured by Cherokee hands, are very common. Almost every family in the nation grows 
*' cotton for its own consumption. Industry and commercial enterprise are extending them- 
" selves in every part. Nearly all thejjperchants in the nation are native Cherokees. Agri- 
*' cultural pursuits, (the most solid foimdation of our national prosperity,) engage the chief 
*' attention of the people. Different branches in mechanics are pursued. — The population 
** is rapidly increasing." 

Such is the land, which at least one large community of these Indians are to leave. Is it 
not too much for human natui'e to bear ,that unoffending tribes, for no alleged crime, in pro- 
found peace, should be rooted up from their liereditary settlement, in such a land, and hurri- 
ed off to such an one as I shall presently show to the House ? 

Sir, they are attached to it ; it is their own, and though by your subleties of state logic, you 
make it out that it is not their own, they think it is, they love it as their own. It is the seat 
of their council fires, not always illegal, as your State laws now call them. The time has 
been, and that not very distant, when had the King of France, or of Spain, or of England 
talked of its being illegal for the^Choctaws or the Cherokees to meet at their council fire, 
they would have answered " comie and prevent us." It is the soil in which are gathered 
ttie bones of their fathers. This idea, and the importance attached to it by the Indians, has 
been held up to derision, by one of the officers of the Government. He has told the In- 
dians that "the bones of their fathers cannot benefit them, stay where they are, as long as 
they may." * I touch with regret on that, upon which the gentleman from New York has 
laid his heavy hand. I have no unkind feeling towards the individual who has unadvisedly 
made this suggestion. But the truth is, this is the very point on which the Indian race — 
sensitive on all points — is most peculiarly alive. It is proverbial. Governors Cass and Clarke, 
m their official report the last winter, tell you, that " we will not sell the spot which con- 
tarns the bones of our fathers," is almost always the first answer to a proposition for a sale. 
The mysterious mounds which are seen in different parts of the country, the places of se- 
pulture for tribes that have disappeared, are objects of reverence to the remnants of such 
tnbes, as long as any such remain. Mr. Jefferson, in his notes on Virginia, tells you of such 
a case. Unknown Indians came through the country, by a path known to themselves, 
through the woods, to visist a mound in his neighborhood. Who they were, no one knew, 
or whence they came, nor what was the tribe to whose ashes they had made their pilgrim- 
age. It is well known that there are tribes who celebrate the great feast of the dead ; an 
awful but affecting commemoration. They gather up the bones of all who have died since 
the last return of the festival, cleanse tliem from their impurities, collect them in a new de- 
posite, and cover them again with the sod. Shall we, in the complacency of our superior 
light, look without indulgence on the pious weakness of these children of nature ? Shall 
we tell them that the bones of their fathers, which they visit after the lapse of ages, which 
they cherish, though clothed in corruption, can do them no good ? It is as false in philoso- 
phy, as in taste. The man who reverences the ashes of his fathers — who hopes that posterity 
will reverence his, is bound, by one more tie, to the discharge of social duty. 

Proceedings of the Indian Boanl, in the City of New York, with Col. M'Kenney's Address, page 42. 



Now, Sir, whither are these Indians, when they are removed, to go ? I confess I am less 
informed than I could wish. I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr, HEjfPHiLL] 
for his amendment. It does credit to his sagacity. It is just what is wanted. I say, we all 
want information. We are going, in a very high-handed way, to throw these Indians into 
the Western wilderness. I call upon every gentleman, who intends to vote for the bill, to 
ask himself, if he has any satisfactory information as to the character of that region. I say 
it is a terra incognita. It has been crossed, but not explored. No one knows its recesses, 
but the wild Indians who hunt over it. 1 have made some notes of this country, however^ 
with which I will trouble the House : 

*'In regard to this extensive section of country, (between the Meridian of the Council 
'* Bluffs and the Rocky Mountains) we do not hesitate in giving the opinion that it is almost 
'* wholly unfit for cultivation, and of course uninhabitable by a people depending upon 
*' agriculture for their subsistence. Although tracts of fertile land, considerably extensivej^ 
*' are occasionally to be met with, yet, the scarcity of wood and water, almost uniformly 
*' prevalent, will form an insuperable obstacle in the way of settling the country. This 
'* objection rests, not only on the immediate section under consideration, but applies, with 
** equal propriety, to a much larger portion of the country — [North and South.] The whole 
** of this region seems peculiarly adapted as a range for buffaloes, wild goats, and other 
*' wild game, incalculable multitudes of which find ample pasturage and subsistence 
** upon it. — Long, vol. II. page 361.*' And shall we send men, who have been brought up 
in the corn field, the workshop, and at the loom, to hunt buffalo, and wild goats, in this 
uninhabitable desert ? 

Mr. Nurttall, an exceedingly intelligent and scientific traveller, who visited this country in 
1819, thus speaks of a portion of it : 

'* To give my reader some idea of the laborious exertions which these people make 
♦• to obtain a livelihood, I need only relate, that the Osages had now returned to their vil- 
** lage from a tallow hunt, in which they had travelled not less than three hundrM miles up 
*• the Arkansas, and had crossed the saline plains, situated between that river and the Ca- 
** nadian. In this hunt, they say that ten villages ofathemselves and friends (as the Kanzas, 
*' who speak nearly the same language, are called,) joined, for common safety. They 
*' were, however, attacked by a small scout of the Pawnees, and lost one of their young 
** men, who was much esteemed, and, as I myself witnessed, distractingly lamented by the 
** father, of whom he was the only son. They say the country through which they passed 
*' is so destitute of timber, that they had to carry along their tent poles, and to make fire 
" of the bison ordure." — Page 182. 

Sir, the gentleman from Ohio, the other day, moved a resolution, asking for information 
on this subject. The House felt that it wanted the information : his resolution was adopt- 
ed. And what did we get in reply ? Twenty-two lines, from a letter written by Governor 
Clark, five years ago, and he had never seen the country, to which the title of the Osages 
and Kanzas had, when he wrote the letter, just been extinguished. This is the official in- 
formation, which is to guide us in deciding the fate of thousands and tens of thousands of 
fellow-beings ! Then we have the testimony of Mr. McCoy. He saw the country. But 
how much did he see of it ? — how far did he go Westward ? Forty-eight miles only. He 
admits that the land is good only for two hundred miles West from Arkansas ; and three 
quarters of this he took on trust, for he went only forty-eight miles into it, in a Westerly 
direction. Is this an exploration on which we can depend — a hasty excursion, for a few 
miles, into the district, to which we are to transplant the Indians ? Sir, \t would do to write 
a paragraph upon, in a newspaper; it would serve as a voucher for an article in a gazetteer. 
But, good Heavens ! will this warrant us in taking up dependent tribes of fellow-beings 
from their homes, and marching them, at a venture, into this remote desert, upon the bor- 
ders of which an agent has just set his foot? From the time that Mr. McCoy left Saint 
Louis, till he got back there were just sixty-two days. His description is as follows ; and I 
quote the passage, because it contains the strength of his recommendation : 

" I may not be so fortunate as to meet with many who concur with me in opinion relative 
** to the country under consideration, (I mean the whole described in our remarks) yet, I 
** hesitate not to pronounce it, in my estimation, very good, and well adapted to the purpo- 
" ses of Indian settlement. I think I risk nothing in supposing that no State or Territory 
" in the Union embraces a tract, of equal extent and fertility, so little broken by lands not 
" tillable, to that lying South of Kanza and on the upper branches of Osage and Neosho, 
** the extent of which I haVe not yet been able to ascertain. This country also has its de- 
*• fects, the greatest of which is the scarcity of timber ,- but, by a judicious division among 
** the inhabitants, of woodland and prairie, there will be found a sufficiency of the former, 
** in connexion with coal, to answer the purpose in question with tolerable convenience." 

Again. " The greatest defect in this country, (and I am sorry it is of so serious a cha- 
"racter,) is the scarcity of timber. If fields be made in the timbered land, whicli ibst 
** persons, who have been accustomed to timbered countries, are inclined to do, the Indians 
♦• more especially, because often unprepared with teams for breaking prairie, timber will 
*♦ soon become too scarce to sustain the population, which the plan under consideration 



23 

■«* contemplates. I trust that I need offer no apology for supposing that measures ought to 
*' be adopted immediately, for marking off to each settler, or class of settlers, the amount 
•*' of timbered land really necessary for their use, severally, and no more. The timber ge- 
** nerally is so happily distributed, in streaks and groves, that each farm may be allowed 
** the amount of timber requisite, and then extend back into the prairie lands for quantity, 
♦' The prairies being almost universally rich, and well situated for cultivation, afford un- 
*' common facilities for the operation of such a method. By pursuing this plan, wood, after 
-** a few years, will increase in quantity annually, in proportion as the grazing of stock and 
** the interests of the inhabitants shall check the annual burnings of those prairies. These 
** regulations, essential to the future prosperity of the territory, cannot be made without 
** the existence of the superintendency of which I speak. Let it be said that the country 
■" within such and such boundaries shall be given to the Indians, for the purposes under 
** consideration. Next establish such a course of things as will render it possible to make 
*' a fair distribution of it among its inhabitants, in view of their numbers and circumstances, 
■*' and which will secure to them the possibility of future prosperity." 

I believe, Sir, that Mr, McCoy is a very worthy and benevolent person. Having* been 
connected with a mission to some Northwestern band of Indians, which has been nearly or 
quite broken up by the encroachments of whites, he appears to have considered removal 
as the greatest good for all Indians, under all circumstances. While the Indians, whom he 
conducted, were evidently dissatisfied with the country, he makes the best of it. He was 
thei'e a very short time, and penetrated a short distance, but tells us ** the prairies are al- 
most universally rich,'' and that even the single farms can be laid off with a patch of wood- 
land. He could not possibly know this to be true. He saw as much of this country as a 
traveller would see of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, who should go by the straight- 
est road from Philadelpliia to Harper's Ferry, and thence back to Washington. This region 
is said to be six hundred miles long and two hundred and fifty broad. Mr. McCoy's whole 
!ine of march within it, going and returning, was about four hundred miles. 

As for the project of settling each Indian family by a Government superintendency; per- 
suading them to spare the wood ; counting out such a number of trees as is absolutely ne- 
cessary ; and thus making provision "for t;ie possibility of fiiture prosperit}'," and for "to- 
lerable convenience," in respect to fuel, it defies gravity. The wildest delusions, by which 
waste lands in distant countries are puffed off' by jobbers, do not go beyond this. One 
coarse fact, like that which I have already cited from Mr. Nuttall, showing the wretched 
shifts to which the (3sages were put for fuel, is worth a volume of those well meaning spe- 
culations on the providence, thrift, and foresight, of the Indians, in husbanding their tim- 
ber. This incontestable want of timber in the region in question, would make it unin- 
habitable to the thriftiest people on earth. Sir, mere benevolence, piety, and zeal, do not 
quahfy a person to promulgate opinions, which are to affect the well-being and lives of 
thousands of fellow men. You tell an Indian, shivering in the winter, over^the wretched 
substitute for fuel, which Mr. Nuttall describeSj that there is a *' possibility," some years 
hence, of his having wood enough to enable him to get along with "tolerable conveni- 
ence," if he is very provident in the meantime ! 

What are the Indians to do, after they get here ? The original plan of going over the 
Mississippi was to find ample range for the chase. That object was sanctioned by Mr. Jef- 
ferson, in 1808, when proposed by the emigrating portion of the Cherokees. It now seems 
abandoned ; and we are lold of raising their character, of putting them on an equality with 
ourselves, and fixing them in snug farms of so much woodland and so much prairier Can 
they pursue their accustomed occupations, in this new region ? Can any man, on his re- 
sponsibiUty say, they will find wood and water, and soil, and access to market, and conve- 
nience of navigation, tike what they have left i* No man can say it. What does experience 
teach ? The Cherokees in Arkansajs, after encountering great hardships, were doing well, 
and after ten years residence have been pushed further westward. A lavish expenditure by 
the Governmetit, and the untiring benevolence of the pious and liberal, has re-established 
them in seeming comfort ; but the result is yet to be seen. We are already threatened with 
a'general Indian war on the frontier. But the case of the Cherokees of Arkansas, is the 
only one, which is not a deplorable failure. What says General Clark, writing to the De- 
partment 10th December, 1827. *' 1 must recjuestyou to draw the attention of the Secreta- 
** ry of War, to the moving or emigrating Indians, who are continually coming on to this 
" side of the Mississippi. Those that have come on, and not permanently settled, (many of 
" them) are scattered for the purpose of procuring subsistence; and h-equent complaints are 
*' made against them by the white people, and considerable expense incurred in reconciling 
" the difficulties." 

This " scattering to procure subsistence," (leading to complaints, by the whites, and 
expense in reconciling difficulties,) I take to be a periphrasis for roving about, ^^gg^^g 
ayid stealing. Again : "The tribes on this side of the Mississippi, are wretched, and mo» 
*^ vingfrom place to place. I have just heard that the several scattering bands, who reside 
'■' e<I ^lear Fort Tovvson, have moved near Alexandria, on the Red Kiver. 



24 

"It will be necessary, that authority be .^Iven, as soon ae possible, to exchanj^e lands wit!? 
♦Uhe Delawares, Kickapoos, Sbawnees, Piankishaws, &c., and settle them on the Kanza& 
" river. And it is also necessary, that some assistance should be given to remove them 
" there ; and when there, to assist them in preparing the earth for cultivation, and provisions,, 
*' till they can raise a support. Without this aid, the Indians will be more wretched than 
" they were before they moved. 

*' The. Shawnees and Delawares of Cape Girardeau, who were, twenty i/ears ago, doing well, 
'* luith good houses, little farms, luith stock in abundance, are now in distress, roving in small 
** parties in every part of the country, in pursuit of subsistence. Those who have come from 
*' Ohio will, if not supported, in a short time he in the same situation. 

" The distresses of the Indians of this superintendency, are so great and extensive, and 
" complaints so frequent, that it is and has been impossible for me to report them. I there- 
*' fore have taken on myself a great deal, in acting as I thought best; I have not troubled the 
<* Government, with numerous occurrences, which they could not remedy.*' 

Sir, General Clark is your most experienced Superintendent of Indian affairs ; and his su- 
perintendency lies in this vaunted Indian Canaan, beyond the Mississippi. Let us learn wis- 
dom from the fate of the Shawnees and Delawares, who in twenty years, have sunk from the 
possession of comfortable farms and competence, to abject roving poverty. One statement 
more, from an official letter of General Clark, of March 1, 1826, and I leave this topic. 

*' The condition of many tribes west of the Mississippi, is the most pitiable that can be ima- 
*' gined. During several seasons in every year they are distressed by famine, in which many 
*« die for the want of food, and during which, the living child is ofle7i buried with the dead 
*' mother, because no one can spare it as much food as would sustain it through its helpless 
** infancy. This description applies to the Sioux and Osages, and many others ; but I men- 
" tion those because they are powerful tribes, and live near our borders, and my official sta- 
" tion enables me to knon' the exact truth. It Is vain to talk to people in this condition 
'* about learning and religion." 

This is the country to which the Indians are to be moved. This is the fertile region, in 
which they are to be placed. This their prospect of Improvement. 

The worthy Chairman of the Committee, told us of the causes of their degeneracy, seated 
in the nature or in the habit, the second nature, of the Indians. I admit the truth of the re- 
presentation ; 1 am sorry there is so much foundation for it. My hopes have never been over 
sanguine of elevating the race to a high degree of cIvIHzation ; although within a few years 
better hopes have been authorized, than ever before. But these causes of degeneracy exist. 
The Indians, it is said, suffer from the proximity of the whites, and the jealousy and hostility 
between them, and the conscious Inferiority of the Indian. But this is not remedied west of 
Arkansas ; they will have a white population crowding on them there. There is one already. 
We are told they are improvident. Be it so ; will they not be improvident there. Mr. Mc- 
Coy tells us, this happy land has but little timber, and yet thinks that, if left to themselves, 
that they would go in and cut it down : and that there must be a sort of Government forester, 
to parcel it out for them, and keep them from wasting it. We are told they have an innate 
propensity to Intemperance. Will they cease to have It in tlie wilds of Arkansas ? If they 
thirsted for spirits by the pleasant banks of the Ustanala and Coosawattee, will they abstain in 
the salt prairies and parched deserts of the West ? What safeguard will they have there, which 
they have not here ? Surely, sir, as they are removed from a surrounding civilization, as they 
cease to breathe tlie very temperate atmosphere of the Atlantic States, there is reason to 
fear that the causes of degeneracy will remain in all their intensitj^, while the checks wfll 
befe^er, and the remedies weaker. 

1 have already hinted that this great project fails in the point put forward as its recom- 
mendation, the 'permanency of the new abode. There is no well-grounded hope of per- 
manency in it, and our experience shows it is delusive. The Cherfkees of Arkansas re- 
mained unmolested ten years. If the lands to which you remove them are what you de- 
scribe them to be, you may as well push back the tide In the Bay of Fundy as keep out the 
white population. Its progress onward Is sure, and as surely w ill it push the Indians before 
it. This new wilderness which you parcel out to them is not a permanent home. It is a 
mere halting place— a half-way house on the road to the desert, • 

We talk of pledges, guaranties, and patents. Now, sir, I have not the least doubt of the 
good faith of the President, of his Cabinet, of every gentleman in this House friendly to the 
bill, and of every honest man In the community who supports it. They all honestly mean 
that the Indians should be safe in their new residence ; and if they are not safe, it will not 
be the fault of the friends of the bill. Having said this, I must be permitted to add, that I 
would not give one farthing for the best patent that could be issued to this new country, 
with the seal of every member of the Government. 1 would not pick up the unmeaning 
scrawl from the earth. What, take a ])atent to secure my title west of the Mississippi, when, 
fifty treaties on the east side, signed by all your Presidents, sanctioned by all your Con-' 
gresses, have proved themselves not worth what it cost to engross them. ? I would regard 
the offer of it as an insult. Treaty and patent ; what is the difference, save that the former 
is the more solemn and authentic pledge of the public faith. Are they not both of the like 



25 

parchment, signed and sealed ? What is there in a patent to give it a binding power ? Is- 
there any principle of obligation in it ; any life or voice to upbraid its violators ? There is 
nothing in it. It is a word, a name. It signifies nothing — it can do nothing. It is meant 
well — and that is well — and that is all. 

Bat, sir, these Indians coidd not hve in this country, not even if your advancing popula- 
tion would let them alone, and the country itself were a pretty good one. It requires some 
of the highest qualities of civihzed man to emigrate to advantage. I do not speak of great 
intellectual elevation 5 not of book learning, nor moral excellence ; though this last is of great 
importance in determining the prosperity of a new settlement. But it is only the chosen 
portion of a community, its il'ite, that can perform this great work of building up a new 
country. The nervous, ardent young man, in the bloom of opening life, and the pride of 
health, can do it. It is tliis part of the population that has done it. This is the great drain 
of New England and the other Atlantic States. But to take up a whole population ; the old, 
the feeble, the infant, the inefficient and helpless, that can hardly get through life any where, 
to take them up by a sweeping operation, and scatter them over an unprepared wilderness, 
is madness. It is utterly impossible for them — I do not say to prosper— but even to subsist. 
Such a thing was never heard of. How narrowly did tlie pilgrims of New England 
escape destruction, although their ranks were made up of men of the sternest moral quali- 
ties, well provided with pecuniary resources, and recruited for several years by new adven- 
turers ! The Indiaps are to be fed a year at our expense. So far is well, because they will not 
starve that year. But, are the prairies to be broken up, houses built, crops raised, and 
the timber brought forward, in one year ? Sir, if a vigorous young man, going into the prai- 
rie and commencing a settlement, can raise a crop to support himself the second year, I take 
it he does well. To expect a community of Indian families to do it, is beyond all reason. 
The Chairman of the Committee tells us, it would be cruel to cast them off at the end of one 
year ; they must be helped along. Doubtless they must. And, in the progress of this way 
of living, partly by the chase, partly by husbandry, and partly by alms, if a people naturally- 
improvident do not speedily become degenerate and wretched, they will form an excep- 
tion, not merely to all their brethren, with a single exception, who have preceded them in 
this course, but to the laws of nature. The earnest volition to go, is the great spring of the 
emigrant's success. He summons up his soul, and strains his nerves, to execute his own 
purpose 5 but drive a heart-sick family, against their will, from their native land, put them 
duv.n in a distant wilderness, and bid tliem get their living, and there is not one chance in 
fifty that they would live two years. While you feed them they will subsist, and no longer. 
General Clark tells you, that those who were in comfort twenty years ago, must now be fed. 
Sir, they cannot live in these dismal steppes. They must starve ; we know they must. Ge- 
neral ^larke tells us they do starve ; and when the mother starves to death, they put the living 
child into the grave with her. To palliate this terrific occurrence, we are told it is common, 
it is incident to Indian life. But not surely among the Southern Indians. And if it is meant 
only that it is common beyond the Mississippi, then what an image does it not give us of the 
country into which we are driving these victims ? If it were not as sterile as the desert of 
Arabia, it would yield enough to prevent the recurrence of such horrors. 

View the subject in another light. What is to keep these Indians after their removal 
from from making war on each other ? This danger was instantly perceived by the intelli- 
gent traveller whom I have already cited.* " Since this period," says he, "hostilities, as 
"might have been expected, have again commenced between these restless and war- 
*• like tribes, (the Cherokees and Osages,) who can perhaps never be prevailed upon 
*' to live in friendship, as they will be perpetually transgressing each other's hunting 
** grounds. At a -very recent date, (1821,) four hundred Osage warriors appeared before 
** the garrison at Belle Point, on their way against the Cherokees, accompanied by a 
" party of the|Sauks and Fox Indians, and killed four Quapaws hunting in the neighborhood. 
*' Such is the effect of the imprudent and visionary policy of crowding the natives together, 
" in the hopes of keeping them at peace." 

These 75,000 Indians whom you propose to collect in this region, are not one tribe ; they 
are not cognate tribes. We are told in some of the papers which have been laid on our 
Hbles, that the four Southern tribes speak the same language. It is not so. The Choc- 
taws and Chickasaws speak substantially the same ; the Creeks speak a different language, 
and the Cherokees still another. With these Southern tribes, and the Norlh-western, there 
is no affinity. There are between various tribes of Indians, hereditary feuds. Mr. McCoy's In- 
dians were at war with the Osages, and had been for years. You put them down side by 
side. You bid them hunt in the same waste. You grant the same land two or three times over 
to different tribes. The lands granted to the Cherokees of Arkansas, had been in part 
given, the year before, to the Creeks. The Chickasaws are to be put down on the Choc- 
taw lands. The new Cherokee territory runs over the reservation of the Kanzas and Osages 5 
and into this territory, thus pre-occupied, you are going to poiu' down from fifty to seventy- 
five thousand more. I will cite, on this subject, a paragraph from an Arkansas paper. I pre- 
tend not to claim for it any other weight, than what it derives from the manifest reasonjibleness 
of its purport : 

• Nuuall, p, 212. 



26 

*^ Proposed residence of the Indians. — The whole country west of Missouri and Arkan- 
*' sas, (including the forty miles severed from the latter,) is already parcelled oiit to the 
•** different tribes that now occupy it. The Cherokees and Creeks are already murmuring 
■«« on account cf their restricted limits, and complain that the Government has assigned to 
^* both the same tract of country. The productions of the habitable parts of the country, 
■** under the careless culture of the Indians, will be found not more than sufficient to sup- 
^' ply the wants of the present population. If the proposition respecting the formation of 
** an Indian colony, contained in the report of the Secretary of War, should be adopted by 
^' the Government, we will have, according to the Secretary's calculation, 75,000 at one 
■«' litter, in addition to those already in the country. Will he tell lis where he will put them } 
** and how he will support them under existing circumstances ? I believe this plan rational 
"5* and practicable, if the Texas country belonged to the Government ; but, otherwise, the 
«* restricted limits in which he would have to plant his colony, would render it a perfect In- 
*' dian slaughter-house." 

There is only one way in which we can prevent this mutual havoc, and that is by the con- 
stant presence of a powerful armed force, and on that I shall presently say a word. 

But the difficulty does not stop here : Tliere are two boundaries to this new Territory. 
There is Arkansas on one side, a part of our Union ; from which, of course, no violence 
will be perpetrated against the Indians. But, on the other side, they will be -open to the 
desert. Is that desart empty ^ Is it occupied only by the buffalo ? Sir, it is the hunting ground 
of the Pawnees and Camanches — the fiercest tribes of the continent. These are the masters 
in civilization, to whom'vvc are going to send our hopeful pupils, to complete their edu- 
cation. Our Indians have made some progress in the arts of life ; and now we are goin^ to 
put them down by the side of these dreaded hordes, who are a terror even to our own armed 
traders, and still realize that frightful picture of Indian ferocity and power, which fills the 
early pages of the histoiy of America. What must be the consequence ? The answer is 
short : They will be destroyed. When these wild savages of the desert shall take our civi- 
lized red brethren in hand, they will most probably crush them. 

This event can only be averted by another. If the Indians, whom you congregate in 
these prairies can (which I do not believe,) ward off starvation ; if they take root and flou- 
rish ;, and, if they withstand the power of the untamed tribes in their neighbourhood, it must 
be by resuming themselves the savage character. If they fight the Pawnees and Camanches, 
it must be by themselves again becoming a warlike race. I have no faith whatever in their 
being able to sustain themselves ; but if they do, what have you effected ? You have built 
up a community of near one hundred thousand Indians, obhged, in self defence, to assume a 
warlike character, and provided, by your annuities, with the means of military annoyance. 
And what sort of neighbors will they be to your own white settlements i* What sort of a 
barrier will you have raised to protect Arkansas from the Camanches ; for this is one of the 
prospective benefits which have been set forth, as likely to result from this measure ? The 
impolitic character of the measure, in this view of it, did not escape the observation of the 
most judicious person who has visited that country. "It is now, also," says Mr. Nuttall, 
*' the intention of the United States to bring together, as much as possible, the savages 
** beyond the frontier, and thus to render them, in all probability, belligerent to each other, 
" and to the civilized settlements on which they border. To strengthen the hands of the enemy, 
" by conceding to them positions favorable to their designs, must certainly be far removed 
*' from prudence and good policy. To have left the aborigines on their ancient sites, ren- 
*' der«d venerable by the endearments and attachments of patriotism, and surrounded by 
** a condensed population of the whites, must either have held out to them the necessity of 
" adopting civihzation, or, at all events, have most effectually checked them from commit- 
*' ting depredations. Bridled by this restraint, there would have been no necessity for 
" establishing among them an expensive military agency, and coercing them by terror." 

Sir, these alarms of war are not imaginary. A hostile incursion was made as late as last 
January into the South Western corner of the Territory of Arkansas. One citizen was killed 
while at work, and the neighboring settlements thrown into confusion, and threatened with 
being broken up. Affidavits proving the fact are on your table. A letter is before m* 
from a highly respectable source in the Territory of Arkansas, stating it to be now " ascer- 
" tained that the Indians are preparing to make a general attack on our frontiers in the 
" month of May or June next." While I speak it, sir, the Savage Is perhaps on your fron- 
tier settlements. Will he spare your own Indians, whom you propose to throw as a barrier 
between him and these settlements ? No, sir, he will consider these new comers as intruder? 
on his own domain. The vast region to which we have extinguished the title of the Osages 
and Kanzas, and over which we propose to scatter cur tribes, is claimed as their own hunt- 
ing ground, by the Pawnees and Cumanches ; and you are not to suppose, that, while their 
war-parties are insulting the regular troops of your own army, they will respect your enfeeb- 
led Indians. Let gentlemen read the account of the expedition sent out to overawe these 
war-parties during the last Summer, and they will see this is to be no trifling business. 

Do gentlemen forget that we have already been called on for strong measures of defence ? 
There is now a bill on our tables, from the Senate, ti) mount ten companies for the protec- 



27 

lion of the frontier ; and it is not alone against the unreclaimed Savages of the desert, that 
we are called upon for protection. I find, sir, among the papers accompanying that bill, a 
memorial from the Legislature of Missouri, setting forth the danger to be feared from the 
Indians collected by ourselves in the region beyond the Mississippi. Coming in a form so 
authentic and respectable, t shall be pardoned for citing a few sentences from it. It was 
adopted by the Legislature of Missouri on the 26th December, 1S28. 

" There is another consideration equally forcible. The Government of the United States 
" has caused various powerful tribes of Indians to be removed from the East of the Missis- 
" sippi river, and located on our Western frontier. It is believed that these Indians, while 
on their hunting parties, pay as little respect to the property of the whites, as do the wan- 
dering and less civihzed tribes of the Western Territory. The Government having thus 
located these Indians, it is expected that every reasonable precaution will be taken to se- 
cure the citizens of our State from Indian depredations. Savages are restrained by no- 
thing but force, and we have good grounds to apprehend, that, unless a military force be 
" placed among them, they will not only repeat their aggressions on our trading parties, 
*' but that ere long they will make inroads on our frontier settlements. We hftve the autho- 
rity of an experienced Indian Agent for saying, that the Pawnee Indians, a powerful tribe, 
** are now much disaffected towards us, and are determined to spare no white man who falls 
*' in their way." 

In consideration of facts and representations like these, you have now before you a bill 
for mounting ten companies, a force equal to one tenth part of the Army of the United 
States. You are actually obliged to turn one tenth of your army into rangers to protect that 
frontier, beyond which you are going to congregate your Indian neighbors. If one tenth are 
now required, can any one doubt that our whole army wovdd be httle enough to repress the 
incursions of the wild tribes, and keep the peace among seventy -five thousand of our own 
Indians, pent up in their new districts, and protect the frontier from both ? There is little 
doubt in my mind, that it would require the standing army to be doubled in order to effect 
these objects. 

And now, sir, let us count the cost. Let us count the cost ! I do not say this is to be the 
governing consideration. I do not say, that, if the object could be fairly, and rightfully, 
and with good faith, attained, I would not go with gentlemen, who have expressed their 
readiness, on tlie like supposition, to take a hundred miUions of dollars from the Treasury, 
and pledge the public credit for a century in advance. I will decide that, when the case 
comes up. But I will know, first, what this movement is really to cost. I will not vote in 
the dark. I will not be amused with a vote of five hundred thousand dollars, to execute 
a project, of which the expense will fall little, if any, short of five times five millions. 

There are several items in the expenditure requisite to effect such a movement, which, 
though heavy in amount, are contingent in their nature, and difficult to calculate. I shall 
take only such as admit of being brought to a standard of calculation : 1st. The first item 
is the original purchase money ; the price we are to give for the title which the Indians 
have, (whatever we call that title) to the lands they occupy. This has ever been a heavy 
charge in our Indian treaties. , What will it cost to extinguish the Indian title to more than 
fifty mdlions of acres of land, the quantity occupied by the Indians to be removed ? Here 
we can have no safer estimate than experience. I shall take, as the basis of the calculation, 
the last considerable treaty with the Creek Indians, that of Washington, in 1826. By that 
treaty, we acquired four millions seven hundred thousand acres of land. The amount paid 
for this cession, including a principal sum, whose interest would equal the perpetual annuity 
of $20,000, was $650,933. This sum does not include the expenses of negotiation, the 
value of improvements relinquished, nor the purchase of the territory West of the Missis- 
sippi. The amount of land to be acquired exceeds fifty millions of acres, say eleven times 
the cession made by the treaty of Washington, or 51,700,000 acres. Eleven times the 
price paid for the Creek cession amounts to $7,160,133. I deem it fair, on every ground, 
to suppose that we shall have to pay, at least, as much for the other cessions as we 
did for that of the Creeks. The Creeks are the least civilized of the Southern tribes, and 
consequently place the least value on their lands. The Cherokees and Choctaws could 
not, in reason or fairness, be expected to sell a cultivated country, for any thing like what 
is paid for the hunting grounds of uncivihzed tribes. If the, bill is passed, the Indians, in 
general, will feel and know that their lands will be purchased, at whatever price. On all 
these grounds, I am warranted in taking the treaty of Washington as a safe standard for 
the calculation. I might with great propriety go above it, for it is now ascertained that a 
considerable region of these Cherokee lands is rich in gold. We are informed, that four or 
five thousand persons are engaged in washing gold within the Indian country, and that they 
get two dollars each per diem. It may not be half that ; but if it is only a quarter, or fifty 
cents, a day, (which is likely to be nearer the truth,) it makes the country an exceeding! v 
rich gold region.* Hosts of intruders are already pouring into the country, to rob the In- 



* More Gold.— One of our townsmen has brought, from Habersham County, a piece of Gold, recently found 

lere, worth one hundred and fifty dollars. '"■- "^ " ' ' ' ' ' " ■ .• 

counties of this State, that Geor^a is extre 



there, worth one hundred and fifty dollars. We begin to be ot the opinion, generally entertained in the upper 
• -_ ^ ., . .^.-.- .!._. .-, =_ :_ - -remely rich in the precious metals, and" perhaps as much so as Mexico 



28 

dians of theli' gold. "We surely shall not Imitate their example ; we surely shall not take 
from them gold mines, yielding thousands of dollars a day, without an equivalent. If the 
whole movement is not to be high-lianded force, in its most offensive form, we shall pay 
them something like the value of the treasure, from the possession of which we expel 
them. If we do this, as we are bouud, in equity and in common justice, to do, we shall 
have to pay, for the gold region alone, a sum equal to the whole of what I have estimated 
for the entire extinguishnunt of the Indian title. I am therefore amply warranted in taking 
the price of the (3reek cession, as the standard of the estimate ; and putting down the first 
item at more than seven millions of dollars. 

The next item is Improvements. The bill provides, that we are to pay for such as add real 
value to thelaad. This term improvements is an expression somewhat vague, in its import. 
But the promises which we have held out to these Indians, as well as the dictates of the bar- 
est justice, will require us, to make the Indians in the new country, good. If we force them 
from their houses, we must build them other houses as good. We have solemnly promised 
we will. We shall be barbarians ourselves, if we do not. We must rebuild for them, in 
the far-distant wilderness, where wood is scarce, even for fuel, houses, mills, and workshops, 
such as they have left. They have expended no small sums out of their annuities in roads. 
Shall we set them down in the pathless desert, and do nothing to open avenues of communi- 
cation to it, and between its different parts ? They have here extensive enclosures to their 
fields, we must replace these in the prairie. They have wagons, ploughs, looms, and boats 
These cannot be transposed but at an expense beyond their value. They must be paid for, 
or replaced to them. They have a large amount of live stock, most of which will be an entire 
Joss to them unless we purchase it ; or put it in their power to replace it in the desert. 
All this furnishes a vast amount. I will not undertake to make an estimate of my own ; but I 
will take one furnished from the War Department, by Colonel McKenney, in reference to the 
Chickasaws. After a detailed enumeration of the items of the estimate, he gives the aggre- 
gate sum at $484,750 for the Chickasaws alone, a tribe amounting to four thousand souls. 
Now it is perfectly well known, that this is not the most advanced tribe in civilization. They 
do not exceed the Choctaws, and they fall behind the Cherokees. I consider it, then, safe 
to take this estimate of the War Department, for the Chickasaws, as the standard of the es- 
timate for the Indians to be removed. This will give us as the value of the property of seven- 
ty-five thousand Indians, to be paid for, reimbursed, aiid replaced, $9,075,000. 

The next item is the cost of collection and tranportation. Here we have not merely offi- 
cial estimates, but experience to guide us. Two parties of Greeks have been sent over. 
That headed by Mr. Brearley, the agent of the emigrating Creeks, cost $52,297, for 1,200 
individuals. The other party headed by Col. Crowell, cost $27,585, for 1,300 individuals. 
The expense of the first party is $43 58 per head ; that of the second $21 22 per head ; an 
average of $32 40. Now we are told from the Department, that the price may be still farther 
reduced. Why ? If we form an estimate on two fair experiments the only reasonable mode of 
procedure is that of average ; otherwise, we may make fancied estimates that it will cost no- 
thing, supposing it may be done for less and less, each time. But we are to move them by con- 
tract, says the Second Auditor. Not,sirjWith my consent. Though I deprecate beyond measure 
the passage of this bill, I will liberally and cheerfully vote the appropriations to carry it humane- 
ly and equitably into execution. But I will not vote a dollar for this dreadful contract. Sir, 
send these Indians off" by contract, and their removal will present a scene of suffering, un- 
equalled by that of a flying army iDefore a triumphant foe. It will be the direct interest of 
the contractors to stint them in every supply and accommodation, and to hurry them to the 
utmost limits of human strength. I cast no imputations on the contractors, I know not who 
they are to be. But they are men, engaging in this business, as a money-making speculation; 
and the most ordinary principles of human nature show, that if transported, in this way, many 
of these Indians will be destroyed on the march. Let us have no contracts ; but send them 
under the guidance of men of high responsibility, and let us cheerfully pay the necessary 
expense. The average expense of the two parties of Creeks, which have already emigrated is 
?32 48, taking the statement of the department, in which many things are omitted, fairly 
chargeable to the account. I will then take the cost of collection and transportation at $30 
per head, an expense less than the actual average. The result is $2,250,000 for the whole 
number to be removed. 

The next item is subsistence for 'one year. I have made some efforts to estimate this cor- 
rectly. I am convinced that in the statements made in debate, on this floor, it has been very 
much underrated ; from not adverting to the circumstance which most directly affects the 
cost of the ration, which, we are told, is not to exceed eight cents. On application at 
the proper Department, I learn that the cost of the ration at our several miitary posts, 
west of the Mississippi, is as follows : 

At Cantonment Jesup, 25 miles from Natchitoches . . - - 13^ cts. 

Cantonment Gibson, 600 miles up the Arkansas - - - . 10^ 

Jefferson Barracks, near St. Louis - - - - - - ^1 

or Peru. Our gold region begins to attract more attention than the sugar region. How strange, that the dis- 
covery of Gold in this State was not made at an earlier period ! ThouHands are now profitably employed in 
«eai-ching for this precious metal, and we are afraid some of our most steady, prudent citi zens, will hare 
their heads turned by "golden dreams." {^MiU.^dgevilk Recorder. 



29 

And that *' the great faciUty of transportation is the cause of the difterence in price of the 
ration, in favor of the last named place." This is obvious, and in calculating the value of 
the ration, at any given spot, we must take into consideration, not merely the price of- beef, 
and pork, and corn meal, but that of transportation, which makes a difference of two hun- 
dred per cent, between St, Louis and Natchitoches. Now, it is to be remembered, that this 
subsistence is to be furnished in the interior of a very remote inland country. At Canton- 
ment Gibson, which is perhaps the farthest point on the route, to which there is navigation, 
the ration is 10| cents. The country where the rations are to be distributed is, as Mr. McCoy 
says, one in vi'hich " the privileges of navigation will be very moderate. Should the territory 
prosper, the time will come, when this circumstance will be felt as a serious inconvenience." 
We see how greatly the costjof the ration is enhanced at Cantonment Jesup, which is but 
twenty-five miles from Red River. These provisions are to be carried by land where there 
are no roads. The Chairman of the Indian Commitee tells us that there are fine droves of 
cattle on the head of waters of the Washita. But the Washita does not penetrate this 
■egion, and there is a range of hills between. The ration will unquestionably cost more in 
the refcesses of this country, than it does at Fort Jesup, vi^ithin twenty-five miles of Natchi- 
:oc]ies. It is there 13^ cents. I believe it will be twenty cents on an average, throughout 
this pathless wilderness, without rivers — without roads — without population ; but I will 
:ake it at only fifteen, being but one cent and a half beyond the military ration, within 
twenty-five miles of Steamboat Navigation. Taking the ration at 15 cents, one year's 
jubsistence without any extras or any contingencies, would be fA,106,250. Does this seem 
I vast amount ? The operation is vast. Here is an army of 75,000 souls. Lpok into the 
iccounts of war operations, and see if such an army can be subsisted in an untraveiled wil- 
derness, for a year, at less expense. I sayfnothing of the support which the Governmentj 
unless it leaves them to starve, will indubitably be compelled to furnish them, at the end of 
the year, and for years to come. 

Then, sir, we have titles to extinguish. The Chickasaws are to be put down on the Choc- 
;aw lands : Will this cost nothing ? The basis of all Qur operations has hitherto been to 
jive acre for acre. The Cherokees are to be established on lands already granted either to 
;he Creeks or to the Arkansas Cherokees. Something must be dpne to quiet the claims of 
:he Osages and Kanzas, on whose reservations we are already encroaching ^ and very ex- 
;ensive extinguishments must be made for the northwestern tribes. I say nothing of the 
:laim of the Pawnees and Camanches, whose right to hunt in the whole region we must 
either buy out or fight out. For this purpose numerous treaties are to be held ; and the 
ivhole aggregate expense, estimating the present value of the annuities, which will proba- 
5ly be the form of the payment, cannot be less than one million and a half. We have then 
he following items of the expenditure, incident to removing several nations of Indians from 
heir native homes to the western wilderness : 

First purchase of their title ...... g; 7,160,133 

Expense of improvements to be paid for or replaced - - - 9,075,'oOO 

Collection and transportation ---.._ 2,250,000 

Subsistence for one year ...... 4,106^250 

^ost of new lands in the West - - - - , „ 1,500 000 



$ 24,091,38^ 



But, sir, we have not done, even at this rate. We have promised these Indians, thai, if 
:hey remove, we will keep up their schools, now existing in considerable numbers. We have 
a Territorial Government to support among them, which we are told by the Department will 
cost as much as that of Florida, which is about ^25,000 per annum. It must be much 
Tiore expensive, considering the materials to be governed, and that the Government is to 
descend to such details as counting off the trees which each Indian family is to have in its 
wood lot. But I take it at $ 25,000. Then there is the expense of the Militaiy Establish- 
Tient to be kept up. I will go into no considerations to show that a very large military force, 
3eyond any thing proposed or contemplated hitherto, will be required to keep these Indi- 
iMs at peace with each other ; to defend tliem against the unreclaimed tribes ; and to pro- 
lect the Irontier. I will confine myself to the expense of the ten companies of rangers 
ili-eady asked for. 1 have examined the report of the Quartermaster General, of the 8th 
}i last March, containing an estimate of the first cost of mounting ten companies and their 
uinual support. Taking the cost of the horses at $ 100 each, which we are told by Gene- 
ral j£sup «« It will be safer to assume," the first year's expense will be $ 83,750, and the an- 
nual charge $ 39,875. So that the Civil Government of the new Territory, and the mihtary 
lefence of the frontier, will amount to $ 64,875 per annum, according to these estimates- 
But no man can believe it will rest within any such limits. 

I return to the cost of the operation, which I have calculated on official estimates. It is 
rwENTr FOUR MILLIONS. Almost just two dollars per head for the estimated population, 
it the census of this year. This enormous sum is to be raised by a tax on the people. Let 



30 

us see what proportion of it is to be paid by some of the States. — 1 take the estimated num- 
bers from a document submitted to the House, in reference to the apportionment of Repre- 
sentatives, under the new census. On that basis, there will be paid for removing the Indi- 
ans, by 

Maine, -..-.. $748,000 

New Hampshire, . - . . . . 564,000 

Masssachusetts, - - - - - . . 1,152,00(> 

Rhode Island, -. - - - - . 184,000 

Connecticut, * - - . ... 380,000 

Vermont, - - - - - • . 548,000 

New York, - - - - - - 4,080,000 

New Jersey, - - - - - - 650,000 

Pennsylvania, --.... 2,800,000 

Delaware, -.-... 156,000 

Maryland, - - . . - . 652,000 

Virginia, .... . . 1,400,000 

North Carolina, - - - - - - 920,000 

South Carolina, - - - - - - 570,000 

Georgia, - - - - - - 476,000 

Kentucky, ...... 1,120,000 

Tennessee, ...... 926,000 

Ohio, ...... 2,000,000 

Louisiana, ...... 200,000 

Mississippi, . . . . - . 120,000 

Indiana, - - - - - - 664,000 

Illinois, ...... 390,000 

Alabama, - - ■ . - - 396,000 

Missouri, - - - - " " 290,000 

I ask gentlemen from every State in this Union, if they feel justified in laying such a tai; 
on their constituents for such an object ? I will not admit, that my constituents are less 
liberal, than those of any other member?' They are a frugal people, sir, and their frugality ena- 
bles them to provide honorably, for all just and equitable demands of the Government. But if 
we should go home, and tell the people of Massachusetts, that we have voted away eleven 
hundred thousand dollars of their money to remove these Indian nations, I believe they 
would call us to a very strict account, — an account which I, for one, should not know how 
to meet. Sir, I solemnly believe, that I have not estimated the expense of removing this 
host, one dollar too high : but take it at a half ; take it a quarter, (and the chairman of the 
Committee tells us, it may amount to 15,000,000) is there a gentleman here, who thinks 
that his State, if the question were fairly put, would agree to be taxed, to such an extent, 
for such an object. The State of New York will have to pay one miUion of dollars as her 
share of the expense, on its admitted cost. Let a resolution be introduced at Albany, ap- 
proving such a tax, for such a purpose, and what would be its fate ? 

But the amount of this expenditure is not my greatest objection to it. The mode of its 
disbursement is still more exceptionable. The bill provides no check upon it. It is placed 
within the uncontrolled discretion of the Department. Whatever confidence any gentlemen 
may place in that Department, such a discretion is at war with the character of our institutions, 
and peculiarly so with the principle of specific appropriations, which has been so strongly ur- 
ged upon us, as the rule of our conduct. Of all the various objects connected with this bill 
and comprehended under it, no one is specified. We cannot pass our Appropriation bill, 
for the support of Government, without specifying the loW^t officer who is to receive a 
salary, and the amount of that salary ; and this too, notwithstanding the existence of pre- 
vious laws creating the office. Here we have a vast operation, extending to tribes and na- 
tions, to tens of thousands of souls, purchasing and exchanging whole regions, building fif- 
teen thousand habitations in a distant wilderness, and putting 75,000 individuals in motion 
across the country, and not an officer or agent specified ; not a salary named ; not one item 
of expenditure limited 5 the whole put into the pocket of one head of Department, to be 
scattered at his will ! 

Sir, I impute no corruption nor purpose of corruption to any officer, high or low. But I , 
say a bill like this, which is to send a Government agent to every Indian in the country, in 
order to tempt him off' ; which is to appraise the value of every Indian habitation, from the 
comfortable dwelhng of the Cherokee, to the wretched cabin of the fugitive Seminole ,- 
which is to estabUsh a home in the Western prairie for every Indian, who has left one east of 
the Mississippi 5 — and to do all this, merely under the discretion of a department, is a thing 
unheard of in legislation. Sir, it must of necessity be a scene of corruption, without example. 
Your commissioners may be men of honor and probity ; but the nature of the operation will 
require an army of agents and sub-agents, contractors and sub -contractors, appraisers and 
sub-appraisers. Were it but for its effect on the morals of the country, in this respect, the 
passage of the bill ought to be earnestly deprecated. 



81 

And now sir, what is the necessity of this measure I What is the necessity of removing- 
the Indians > Shall I confess my weakness, sir ? I have really tried to find a necessity for 
passing this bill.— So great has been the sensibility manifested, in the States most particularly 
interested ; so strong their urgency ; so alarming the consequences denounced upon us, if 
we do not pass it, that I have tried to feel myself under a moral necessity to pass it. I^ 
would gladly have gone for it, as the least of evils. But I cannot catch a glimpse of 
any such necessity. I look in vain, in all the docugignts from Georgia and elsewhere, 
to find a positive strong reason why the Indians should be removed. I find nothing 
but vague propositions, to which (with the utmost willingness to feel their force) I can at- 
tach no clear, cogent meaning. They tell us, that, till the Indians are gone, they cannot 
consolidate their society, nor complete their improvements. These generalities carry no 
meaning to my mind ; at least, none to warrant such stern legislation. " Consohdate their 
society." Is not the social system as solid in Georgia, as any where else. "I would not 
hear her enemy say so." And what obstructs her improvement? Not, surely, the presence 
of a handful of Indians in a corner of the State. What is the population of Georgia, 
where there is no room for these few Indians ? It is less than seven to the square mile. We, 
Sir, in Massachusetts, have seventy-four to the square mile, and space for a great many 
more. And yet Georgia is so crowded, that she must get rid of these Indians in her North- 
western corner ! 

Sir, my eye was arrested this morning by a paragraph in the paper, said to be an extract 
from a letter of a most worthy and estimable gentleman, remembered with regard by many 
who hear me, as by myself, the Governor of Georgia. As it contains nothing but what I 
sincerely hope and believe is true, I will quote it •.^— 

*« The Governor of Georgia, in a letter to a gentleman of Philadelphia, says :— * We have 
** no such class as the poor. Our lands are so cheap, and the absolute necessaries of life so 
«' easily obtained, that the number of dependent poor are scarcely sufficient to give exer- 
" cise to the virtue of charity in individuals. A beggar is almost as rare with us as a Prince. 
*< Children, instead of being an incumbrance to the poor of our country, are their riches." 

[Mr. Watne, of Georgia, here said—" It is true."] 

My friend from Georgia tells me it is true. I am heartily glad of it 5 I hope it will always 
be true ; and I wish I had known it a week or two ago, when 1 was trying to prove, that the 
tariff had not ruined the Southern States. 

Being true, sir, I appeal to that high-minded people to be as liberal as they are prosper- 
ous, and leave these poor Cherokees in the possession of their native lands. 

1 have been struck, sir, with the prophetic import of a speech that was uttered by a cele- 
brated Cherokee Chief on occasion of the first cession that was made by treaty of the lands of 
that tribe, in the now powerful and flourishing State of Tennessee. I wish the historian* 
had given it in the very words of the Chief, for every man of taste will agree with me, that, 
among these morcels of native eloquence, there are some which would do honor to the best 
days and mo?t gifted minds of Greece or Rome. That treaty was negotiated in the memora- 
ble month of April, 1775. On that occasion Occonnostata is said to have delivered '* a very 
** animated and pathetic speech. He began with the flourishing state in which the nation 
*' once was, and stated the encroachments of the white People from time to time, upon the 
** retreating and expiring nation of Indians, who left their homes and the seats of their an- 
** cestors, to gratify the insatiable desire of the white People for more land. Whole nations 
*' had melted away in their presence, like balls of snow before the sun, and had scarcely 
** left their names behind, except as imperfectly recorded by their enemies and destroyers. 
*• It was once hopdd that they would not be willing to travel beyond the mountains, so far 
** from the Ocean, on which their commerce was carried on. But now that hope had van- 
*• ished ; they had passed tlig^mountains, and settled upon the Cherokee lands, and wished 
** to have their usurpations Snctioned by a treaty. When that shall be obtained, the same 
** encroaching spirit will lead them upon other lands of the Cherokees 5 new cessions will be 
*' applied for, and, finally, the country which the Cherokees and their forefathers had so 
** long occupied, would be called for, and the small remnant which may then exist of this 
*' nation, once so great and formidable, will be compelled to seek a retreat in some far dis- 
*' tant wilderness ; there to dwell but a short space of time, before they would again behold 
** the advancing banners of the same greedy host, who, not being able to point out any fur« 
*' ther retreat for the miserable Cherokees, would then proclaim the extinction of the whole 
*• race. He ended with a strong exhortation to run all risks, rather than submit to any fur- 
** ther encroachment on their territory ; but he did not prevail !" 

This was in 1775. Since then, sir, there has been more than one period, when, though 
we talk of " giving peace" to these Indians, we have been glad to take it ? when they 
hung fearfully upon the flanks of your settlements ; when Spain used them as her allies, and 
held you in check through them. There have been times, sir, when, had these Indians 
been inspired to foresee the future, it would have been for your benefit, not their^J, that 
your treaties of Hopewell and Holston, would have been negotiated. I assert, fearlessly, 
that there have been periods when the preservation by them of the faith, plighted between 
them and us, was an object as important to us, as it is now to them. 

* Judge Haywood's Civil and Tolitical History of the State of Tennessee, p. 45. 



32 

But times are changed. Sir, in a late visit to the public grave yard, my attention was 
arrested by the simple monument of the Choctaw Chief Push-ma-ta-ua. He was, I have 
been told by those who knew him, one of nature's nobility, a man who would have adorn- 
ed any society. He lies quietly by the side of our Statesmen and high Magistrates, in the 
region — for there is one such — where the red man and the white man are on a level. On 
the sides of the plain shaft that ma\;kg the place of his burial, 1 read these words : 

**Push-ma-ta-ha, a Choctaw Chief, lies here. — This Monument to his Memory is erected;, 
** by his brother Chiefs, who were associated with him in a Delegation from their Nation, ill' j 
** 1824, to the General Government of the United States. He was a Warrior of great dis- , 
** tinction : he was wise in Council: Eloquent in an extraordinary degree : and, on all oc- 
** casions, under all circumstances, the White Man's Friend. He died in Washington, on 
** the 24th December, 1824, of the croup, in the 60th year of his age. Among his last 
** words, were the following: *' When I am gone, let the big guns be fired over me !"* 

This Chief, whose very grave-stone is so touchingly eloquent, was among the Head-men 
of the Choctaw people, who negotiated, with the present Cliief Magistrate, the treaty of 
Doak's Stand. His name and that of the President are side by side, on the parchment. It 
is well that he is gone : for, were he alive, and did he presume to exercise the office of 
Chief, in which you recognized him, and do tlie acts which it is stipulated by the treaty he 
.should do, he would subject himself to the penalties of the law of Mississippi, to be fined 
a thousand dollars and imprisoned for a year. 

Sir, this policy cannot come to good. It cannot, as it professes, elevate the Indian. It 
must and will dishearten, depress, and crush him. If he has within him a spark of that 
pride, without which there can be no rational improvement, this gloomy policy would sub- 
due it. I have labored hard to take an opposite view of the subject; but there is no bright 
side to it. It is all unmingled, unmitigated evil. There is evil on the other side, but none 
commensurate with that of this compulsory removal 

There, sir, I set my foot ; if is compulsory. If you will treat the Indians as free agents; if 
you will withdraw your legal duress ; if they are willing, after exploring the country, to go, I 
I am willing they should, and will join in making the appropriation. But while the laws ex- 
ist, beneath which they cannot live, it is in vain to tell me they are willing to go. How do 
you know it ? Do you tell mc a man, locked up in prison, does not wish to come out '^ How 
do you know it ^ Unlock the prison doors, and then you can tell. 

I have heard it said, these laws are passed in terrorem,- that it is not intended to enforce 
them. In terrorem, sir, and the removal still voluntary ? Are gentlemen serious ? Repeal 
the laws ; put the Indians in a condition to act voluntarily, and then, if they choose to go, I 
will not withhold my vote from any reasonable appropriation ; scarcely from an unreasonable 
one, to pay the cost of the removal. 

I adjure you, sir, to recede ; there is no disgrace in it. Other States, more powerful than 
Georgia, have receded, on points, where their honor and interest were equally involved. 
Sir, if Georgia will recede, she will do more for the Union, and more for herself, than if she 
could add to her domain the lands of all the Indians, though they were all paved with gold. 

The evil, sir, is enormous ^ the violence is extreme ; the breach of public faith deplorable ; 
the inevitable suffering incalculable. Do not stain the fair fame of the country : it has been 
justly said, it is in the keeping of Congress, on this subject. It is more wrapped up in. this 
policy, in the estimation of the civilized world, than in all your other doings. Its elements 
arc plain, and tangible, and few. Nations of dependent Indians, against their will, under 
color of law, are driven from their homes into the wilderness. You cannot explain it, you 
cannot reason it away. The subtleties, which satisfy you, will not satisfy the severe judg- 
ment of enlightened Europe. Our friends there will view this measure with sorrow, and our 
enemies alone with joy. And we ourselves, sir, when the int^sts and passions of the day 
are past, will look back upon it, I fear, with self-reproach, and a regret as bitter as una- 
vailing. 

» Piish-ina ta-ha is said to have addressed himself to his brethren i)i the following manner, before his dcatii r 
" I shall die, hut you will return to our brethren. As you go along the paths, yon will sec the flowers, and 
Wear the birds sing; hut Push-ma-ta-ha will see them and hear them no more. When you are come to your 
home, they will ask you, AVliere i.<) Push-ma-ta-ha ?— and you will say to them, He is no more. They will heRr 
tkc tidings like the sound of the fall of a mighty oak, in the stillne-ij of the woods." 



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